“I had the words come into my heart, “these are sheep without a shepherd.” I know now it was God.”
I am so glad I am saved! The Lord pulled me out of a world of darkness. The things which I did prior to walking with the Lord were, foolish, youthful lusts, falling to peer pressure and things I presently regret and am embarrassed about and wouldn’t even fully write about on this screen.
Jesus saved my soul and pulled me out of the miry pit and set my feet upon a rock. If I were still doing the harmful and crazy things I once did, I would be far from the Lord right now, but He made me near by the blood of Christ!
I was 17 years old and trying to discover my identity. In finding my life, I was really losing it. I was on a spiral downward. I listened to my friends because my sinful nature really wanted to do the bad things they were doing. If you saw the way I was then and knew me now, you’d definitely see that these are two different people. God destroyed the old John Schaffer and has been rebuilding him better, stronger and more useful than ever before.
I absolutely love the Lord and I am glad I had Christian influences in my life. My Uncle Paul was a great example of a Christian to me, though I was embarrassed by his bold form of Christianity. My Great Aunt Doris, sent Bibles and gospel literature to the heathen side of the family and this bible was the first one I really ever picked up and started to truly read.
I went to vacation bible school as a child and asked Christ into my heart in 2nd grade along with my sister Donna. But, since our family wasn’t a church going family, I never grew in the Lord and by the time I was in High School, fell into many harmful lusts that drown men in destruction. Praise God for the Savior Who rescued me!
I had a heart for the things of the Lord and would pray throughout life that Jesus would erase my sins from His big chalkboard in the sky, I was very interested in end times events. In my High School photo class we talked a lot about last things. Still I wasn’t really committed. I even visited Christian Club on my High School campus and felt embarrassed about what my friends in the senior area would be thinking of me.
I really saved up most of my “bad stuff” until my senior year. A friend named Kevin was asking me to smoke some stuff and I said that I get high on life. After about a half hour of convincing me to just try it, I let in and began a huge spiral downward. How blind I became, no longer knowing what was black or white anymore, eventually getting involved in the flesh and immorality.
I worked as an usher at the movie theaters in La Mirada and it was at this time in my life I really began to question the things I was doing, is there more to life than cars, picking up on girls, going to malls? The soul-searching questions went on and on, I think I wrote down about 10 pages of this stuff. Praise God He was showing me the dead end to everything without Him.
God began reaching me in my senior year; some girls were leaving tracts on my car windshield and inviting me to church. I struggled with going to my senior party and asked a couple I had met at a church service if it would be O.K. to drink, they told me it probably wouldn’t be a good idea.
My friend Kevin and I went to Hawaii as a graduation gift from my parents. It was there as we were on the way out the door to fly to Maui, that I received a call; my grandmother had just died. I cried, it was so traumatic to me. My friend wanted me to stay in Hawaii and I new I needed to go home. While on the plane I felt so close to heaven and really thought about these things. God was really working on me!
In the fall I began classes at Cypress College and met a girl named Dee, I thought she looked like an Egyptian princess. She invited me to a Rolling Stones concert and I had never been to a concert before. It was there that I saw a 100,000 young people throwing their fists in the air saying, “yeah!” to a very illicit song. I looked around and said, “this is my generation!?” and then I had the words come into my heart, “these are sheep without a shepherd.” I know now it was God. The relationship with Dee was full throttle going the way of the world and I told her I couldn’t go that direction because I was a Christian, she said she was to, but still my convictions stood, black was now starting to look black. The fog was lifting the blinders were being removed. I saw such ugly things in my heart and began to realize I was on the pathway to destruction.
One night I went to the Young Adults Study at Calvary Chapel of Downey and went up to the girl named Lea Robinson and said
“I’m a saved and everything, but what’s being born-again?” She said it’s the same as being a Christian and I said, “Let me pray with you to make sure.” So I grabbed her hand and prayed and the Lord radically changed my life from that point on. I look back now and know it was really a re-dedication, but I had a radical born-again experience. I knew that I knew that I knew that Jesus was in my heart, that I was right with God and going to Heaven, no one could have told me differently. From then until now, God has been doing a radical transforming work in my life, taking out the old and putting in the new, setting up His Kingdom within me.
Immediately after fully dedicating my life 100% to the Lord I began a home bible study with the friends at the movie theater and they all came over about 27 of them and we just read the book of Ecclesiastes together, the first book I had read months before when I was high.
He has taken me on many more adventures for Him over the years and given me a great Christian wife and wonderful Christian children. I use to evaluate things every 5 years, if God did this much in these five years, what’s He going to do in the next? God is so awesome!
Psalm 66:5 Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf! (NIV)