I was mad at God….

I was mad at God…. I was mad at God…

My name is Doug Hammett and this is my story.

I was the oldest of five children. My father was asemi-professional ball player. As a child I would often go with himto the ball games and was allowed to sit in the dugout withthe players. I grew up loving the game of baseball. Our family wasRoman Catholic in religious belief. I was quite active as an altarboy and in the youth group until my world was shattered.

God or not?

When I was 13 my father was killed in an accident on thejob. This was the beginning of a great deal of turmoil in my life. Ifound myself re-examining everything I believed. I was mad atGod for my father’s death. I missed him and wanted to find a wayto replace the hurt in my life. I was angry and did not understandhow God could do this to me. Yet at the same time I wanted to denythere even was a God. If there was a God, how could He do this?

After my father’s death we moved to Salina, Kansas and I wasenrolled in school. I met a friend, Tony, who began to invite me tovisit his church. I refused to visit for several years until in myhigh school years when I finally gave in. I went partially to get himoff my back and secretly because there was a desire inside of me toknow more about his commitment to Christ.

Interested or not?

I was interested and yet disturbed by what I heard and saw. I hadbeen taught that other kinds of churches were not of God. Insome ways it seemed almost sacrilegious to me. The services were muchmore lively than I was accustomed to. The people were friendly andthe preacher was forceful. The message was especially disturbingbecause I was told that in spite of my past religious involvementI was not acceptable to God as I was. That was certainlydifferent than anything I had heard before!

I was torn inside, and though I wanted to return to hear more, Iwas afraid at the same time. I returned on several occasions to theBaptist Church and also began to read my Bible.

Finally Settled!

A concern to know God in a personal way had been growing over thelast few weeks. On Wednesday, April 21, 1971, I found myself verymuch preoccupied with my desire to be acceptable to God. I spent theevening reading my Bible and thinking of my need for a personalrelationship with Christ. I drove that night to the Catholic Churchthat I attended with the intention of talking to the priest aboutwhat I had been hearing and reading. When I arrived at the church itwas about 11 P.M. and the lights were out. I decided not to wake thepriest and instead attempted to get in the church building to pray,but it was locked. I sat in my car and continued for quite some timeto think about all I had heard about my sin, Christ’s death for me,and my need of Christ’s forgiveness of my sin. That night I prayedand admitted to God not only my sin but my lack of worthiness of Hisforgiveness. It was then that I asked God’s forgiveness on the basisof Christ having died to pay for my sin and yielded my life to Hiscontrol. That night my life was forever altered. Mysins were forgiven as the Bible had promised. Christ took control ofthe course of my life. A new peace and sense of acceptance with Godflooded my soul. I did not understand it all, but I sure enjoyed it!I surrendered my life to God to do with it as He wished and acceptedthat God knew what was best in the loss of my father. My anger wasgone!

Changed Life

Until that night my life had been controlled by my desires, mypleasure and my decisions. After that night a desire to pleaseChrist was born in my heart. I found myself consumed with livingfor Christ. My first question in making decisions became, whatdoes the Lord want? Little did I realize where this would lead.My habit of drinking and my cursing were two of the first matters tocome under the scrutiny of the Word of God. I stopped both because Iknew that the Lord would be pleased with nothing less. I beganattending a Bible preaching church and reading my Bible for thepurpose of learning more of God. I was concerned with knowing God’swill for my life. Before this I had obeyed out of fear, now I wasobeying because I loved God! I had a new motivation for serving God.

It was about a year after my salvation experience that I realizedthat God had a purpose for me. That purpose was to be a preacher ofthe Bible. I immediately sold my cattle and the few farm pieces thatI had accumulated and went off to Bible College to prepare to servethe Lord. I soon found a small church that allowed me to be theirpastor. They helped me greatly by letting me practice on them. It wasthere in Missouri that I met the daughter of a preacher and it seemedas if the Lord had made us for each other. We were married in 1974.We were involved in planting churches for many years and saw the Lordprovide for us in many ways through the years. God gave us 4children. In January of 1988 we moved to Emmaus, Pennsylvania and I became the pastor of the Lehigh Valley BaptistChurch.

What God has done for me He has done for many others. I wouldencourage you to contact me if you would like to know more about whatGod will do FOR YOU. I can be reached at

Or call us at (610) 965 4700 or 1-800-893-9586.