Don Bellesfield’s Testimony

Don Bellesfield’s Testimony

I Could Not Imagine God Forgiving My Sins. ThereWere Just Too Many Of Them

My Name Is Don Bellesfield.
Please Take the Time To Read How God Changed My Life.

When I look back at my childhood, I guess I didn’t grow up muchdifferently than most kids. The only difference I remember was thatmy parents separated when I was very young. Even so,I wasn’t without things to do, and I had the things most kids had.Like most kids, my mom made me go to confirmation classes. Iwent because I had to, and remember learning very little. I was veryhappy when they finally came to an end. After that, I don’t remembergoing to church again until I got married.

At that time, I believed that God existed, but I never thoughtabout going to heaven or hell when I died. I just thoughteveryone went to heaven when they died. I figured it wasautomatic. Nobody talked about going to hell, unless you were amurderer or something bad like that.

When I was about 18, I met a girl and started going steady withher. In 1965, we got married and soon after we had our first son.Three years later we had another son. During those years, I was notvery happy with my life or my marriage, even though I was mostly toblame for my misery. I certainly wasn’t able to put the blame onmyself at that time, though.

When I was 21, I got a part-time job as a taxi driver. This wasperfect for me, because I got paid by the fare and did not have toaccount to my wife for the amount of time I worked, or the amount ofmoney I brought home. That way, when I was supposedly at work, Icould quit after a few hours and spend the rest of the night runningaround and drinking. I never wanted to be at home. But, I wasn’ttruly happy with this life either. I can remember many times beingsurrounded with people I knew in places I loved to be, and stillfeeling lonely inside . Needless to say, after a few years ofthis kind of life, my marriage ended in divorce.

After about five more years of the bar scene, I began to get tiredof it. It seemed as though there had to be more to life than blowingyour money on booze every night and ending up the next morning withnothing but drunken tremors and a hangover.

By this time, I had met another young lady and we began livingtogether. We had my boys almost every night, and this helped cut mydrinking drastically.

Anita and I got married in 1979, and things really started to lookpretty good to me. Between the two of us, we had a good income, andwe wasted no time spending it. I had all the toys Iwanted. First it was camping gear, then a pop-up camper,then a travel trailer. I had four motorcycles in two years, and apop-up trailer for motorcycles to boot!. I remember feeling that lifedoesn’t get any better than this. You would think that with all thethings we had, and spare change on top of it all, that we would becontent. But, there seemed to be something missing. I did not know atthe time that what was missing was the Lord Jesus Christ in my life.

In 1986, my wife and I went through a major crisis in ourmarriage. I found out very quickly that there are some things in lifeyou just can’t easily make right. I had been a very selfish personthinking mostly in our marriage of things that would make me happy.My hobby is trains, and if I wanted to go off for a weekend alone towatch trains, I just did it. I did not give a lot of thought to whatmake my wife happy. When all this came to a head, I could seethis marriage crumbling around me. Feeling helpless, I beganto do something I had never done before. I began to pray for Godto help me straighten out my life.

God did straighten out my marriage – and my whole life, to anextent I could never have expected. Shortly after this, my wife and Istarted to talk about going to church. It turned out to be more talkthan anything, as we spent the next two years talking to anyone wethought could help us figure out what church to go to. I rememberpraying to God and asking him to just send us to the right church.

In 1989, two men out visiting from the Lehigh Valley BaptistChurch, knocked on my door and asked if they could be of anyspiritual help to us. I was interested in what they had to say, butmy wife was recovering from minor surgery and I asked them to returnin a couple of weeks. To my surprise they did return, and in thecourse of our conversation they told me something I had never heardbefore. They told me I was a sinner, and that my sins would keep mefrom going to heaven. They told me the only way to get there was forGod to forgive my sins. What I had to do, they said, was to trulyrepent of those sins and give my life over to the Lord and call onHim for forgiveness. They said that Jesus had already paid for mysins by dying on the cross. I believed what they said, but Icould not imagine God forgiving my sins. There were just too many ofthem. I did not believe God could forgive anyone as bad as Iwas.

These men showed us what the Bible has to say about our eternity.Even after a few more visits from the two men, I had troubleunderstanding how I could be forgiven. These men had no idea how badI really was. It also occurred to me that if we did start going tochurch, we would have to change our lives. I guess I would not haveminded changing a little – I knew I needed that. But I certainly didnot want to become a “holy roller”. I figured that then I could neverhave any fun anymore because I’d always have to be in church, and Idid not relish that thought.

About six months after the first visit, I got a card from one ofthe men inviting me to a men’s night at their church. My wife hadceramics that night, so I figured “Why not, I’ll go”. There were fourspeakers that night. Soon after the first was done, I began to wonderwhat I was doing there. I knew it was going to be a long, boringnight. The first preacher didn’t interest me at all. The second was abit better. I was grateful to be able to take a break and sample someof the food the church ladies had prepared for us. Then the preachingstarted all over again. By this time, the third preacher was soundingpretty good. It was only a few minutes into the next message, though,that I knew God was having that speaker preaching directly at me. Iknew then that God had answered my prayer and that I had found theright church. Little did I know that the Lord had one more surprisefor me.

At the end of the preaching, everyone stood up with their headsbowed, while the question was asked, “Do you know for sure that whenyou die, you’ll go to heaven? If you don’t know for sure, come to thefront of the church and someone will take you and show you from theBible how you can know for sure that heaven is where you will spendeternity”. I knew I wanted to go forward, but I was so scared I wasshaking. I guess the man that invited me saw me shaking and he askedme if I wanted to go forward. I said “no” – and immediately knew thatwas the biggest mistake of my life. My pride, though, kept mestanding where I was. My friend asked again, saying, “Would you likeme to go up front with you?” I nodded “yes,” and on that night, Jan.20, 1989, I was, as the Bible says, born again – forgiven ofmy sins and saved from the pits of hell.

God forgave me of all my sins the moment I admitted to Him that Iwas a sinner, and that there was nothing else here on earth that Icould do to pay the price for my sins and be allowed to enter thegates of heaven when I die.

I wish that my words could be adequate to have you understand thejoy and peace and happiness that I have in my heart today. I nolonger have all the toys. The motorcycles, and the trailer , and theexcess money are gone. But, I would never return to the lifestyle Ihad before God saved me.

I found out that heaven isn’t automatic. Where we spend eternitydepends on what we do about our sins here and now. I have neverexperienced happiness as fully as when I knew heaven would be myhome. You can have the same happiness and assurance.

Don and his wife, Anita, live inEmmaus, Pa. If you would like to know more about the Savior thatchanged Don’s life, you are welcome to attend the

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