Jim Courtney’s Testimony
Jim Courtney’s Testimony When I Grow Up – I’m Going to be Rich and Famous
My name is Jim Courtney and this is my story.
My mom and dad struggled along like most others of that time andplace, working, paying bills–and doing their best to give my sisterand me the things they never had. My goal–very early inlife–was to become “rich and famous”–the first in the family to”make it big”.
My favorite show on television was a series entitled “TheMillionaire”. It was about a multimillionaire who would give away amillion dollars tax-free to some struggling couple on the conditionthat they never reveal to anyone how they received their newfoundwealth. I ate it up.
I developed a taste for “the best that life had to offer”. Whilemy parents were busy providing me with daily needs, I would dream ofthe latest, most expensive fishing rod and scheme how to get it; howmany lawns I had to cut at $3 a lawn…how many driveways I had toshovel at $2 each…and so it went.
My parents had drilled into me the formula for success: get allthe education you can afford, get a secure job with the biggestcorporation you can find (one with a good retirement plan and all the”fringies”) and you’ll have it “made in the shade”.
As my desire for worldly riches continued to grow, my parents andgrandparents were gently reminding me that “money isn’teverything”–and that “as long as you’ve got love and your health,you’ve got true riches”. I didn’t listen–it was too late.
I did well in school and attained a Master’s of Science inJournalism at West Virginia University. After I received myundergraduate degree, I got married to a wonderful woman–NancyReed–and we began our life together in a small apartment. Igraduated after two years of study, and took a job with a smalladvertising agency.
To meet expenses, my wife also worked full time in the executivecompensation office of a large department store chain. The storiesthat she brought home of million dollar annual salaries whetted myappetite even more for the executive suite. I now knew that myparents were right–big corporations and big money go together.
After about a year with the agency, I got a position with one ofthe ten largest corporations in the U.S.–and started my climb to thetop.
Now that I was “set for life”, my wife–who was a juvenilediabetic–began to suggest that she stay at home and start a family.I reminded her that if we wanted the “good life,” kids would have towait–so she got a job.
In June, 1976, my wife became pregnant. We were living in a townhouse and wanted to move to a place with some acreage. How could wedo it on one income? In my heart, I wished that my wife had neverbecome pregnant.
By this time, the Lord had just about all He could take of “Mr.Success”. On February 8, 1977, our first child, Anne DavissonCourtney, was stillborn. My wife and I were devastated. Weburied our baby and began to make plans to start the family that wenow both wanted to have. My wife became pregnant again–and we lostour baby a few months later through a miscarriage.
By now, my wifeís diabetes and two pregnancies had begun tocompromise her health–and we decided to adopt. Several months later,my wife became pregnant again. On December 13, 1978, we were blessedwith our daughter–Sarah Davisson Courtney–born with congenitalheart defects as a result of her momís diabetes. She requiredimmediate surgery. I began to pray to a God I didn’t know–the God ofthe Bible. The Lord was merciful and gave us a successful result. Welearned that Sarah would have to undergo a series of operations overa period of several years. The Lord had begun His work in mylife–breaking me down, bit by bit.
Family matters had cost me time and attention away from my work,and my performance began to slip. I was no longer the rising star atwork. Frustrated, I began looking for ways to supplement my income. Iactually prayed for something to come along–and God answered myprayer–but in a way that I would never have imagined.
I started a part-time business. As part of the training, weattended a weekend information session in Greensboro, South Carolinain September, 1980. The weekend was jam-packed with stories of peoplewho had built large businesses. I was excited! It looked as though Ihad found a way to become rich and famous and have all the things inlife I had wanted. As an optional part of the weekend, there was anon-denominational Christian worship service held on Sunday morning.My wife and I decided to go and check it out. The message wasbrought by a layman–but it was the first time that I had ever heardof Godís plan to redeem lost mankind from a certain andliteral Hell. The layman was very blunt and to thepoint–man has a choice – Heaven or Hell – and the onlydoorway to Heaven is through His Son, Jesus Christ. My sinhad nailed Christ to the cross–and He had paid my sin debt in full.If I would repent from my sin and accept Christ’s payment as my onlyhope for salvation, I would be saved.
My wife and I both responded to the invitation and we wereintroduced to our wonderful Savior. We were then encouraged to seekout a local church where the Bible is preached and obey God throughbaptism. We were led to an independent, fundamental Baptist churchwhere we were baptized and accepted as part of the fellowship.
After being saved, the Lord delivered me from several sinfulhabits which had taken root in college. The Lord was also graciousenough to give us peace through the four additional heart operationsthat our daughter would have. We began attending our new church homeregularly, and God’s Word became alive to me as I sought to apply itin my daily life. As I pored through the Bible, taking notes onsermons and filling my mind with the things of God, I began to sensea conflict between the Bible’s teachings and many of the teachingswithin the business training system that was filling my brain with”success doctrine”.
To my eternal discredit, I began to seek another church home–andfound a large, “progressive” church that preached from the Bible–butsomething was missing. I was being fed a watered down Gospel and didnot have the wisdom to know what to do about it. As I moved furtherfrom the Light of the God of the Bible, another “Light” appeared–thelight of the “prosperity gospel”, which teaches that God wants youhealthy, wealthy and wise. Combined with a strong dose of”possibility thinking” and “positive self-esteem”–I focused my areaof Bible study on the select Scriptures (and twisted interpretationsthereof) that seemed to support my developing view of God as my”goodie-getter”. “Confess it and you will possess it”… “conceive,believe, achieve”…these and many other sayings became my mantra forbecoming “rich and famous”.
As the years wore on, I worked my job by day and my business bynight–missing the little blessing that God had given me–mydaughter. My wife worked too–trying to help rescue us from thefinancial pressure that I had created in search for “the good life”.We floated from church to church–totally blinded to ourdeteriorating spiritual condition.
Finally, my wife’s health declined to the point that her doctorordered her to stop working. The Lord was merciful–and gave me a jobwith better pay. In December, 1987, my wife began her finalfour-year battle with diabetes that finally took her home to be withthe Lord on November 6, 1991.
I remarried, and we found a church that preached the God of theBible. As I became re-introduced to my Savior, some of the oldconflicts began to resurface–The God of the Bible vs. the god ofhealth, wealth and prosperity. One day as I was listening to one ofmy “prosperity gospel” tapes, the speaker said that “the Bible saysthat man without vision shall perish”. He continued to suggest thatthis meant “a man without a goal or vision for his life shallperish”. I checked it out in my Bible and learned that thisinterpretation was not at all what the Bible says.
The Bible says in Proverbs 29:18 that Where there is novision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy ishe. What the Bible is saying is that wherever people cannot getthe true Word of God, they perish. It had nothing to do withgoal-setting or “being successful”. I was shocked–and I realizedthat this verse had been true in my life whenever I had been awayfrom a church that preached and taught the whole Word of God. Iimmediately asked God to get me into a church where I could bewell-nourished in His Word–and I asked Him to show me theprosperity-gospel-based “business training system” through His eyes.I could write a book on what God has shown me and where I went wrong.More importantly–God haswritten a Book–called the Bible – that has everysingle bit of information you need to become a true success.What’s a true success? Someone who brings glory to God with the shorttime they have here on earth. God receives glory from a person whorecognizes their sin and trusts Jesus to save them from a certainHell. He receives glory from those who are saved when they share themost precious possession they have–their faith in a Christ who savesanyone who will put their trust in Him — and Him alone.
I finally found what I was looking for–I just hadn’t been lookingin the right place.
I found the true riches in Christ Jesus. And I found eternalfame–because my name is written in Heaven in the Book of Life.
If you would like to know more about the Savior that changed Jim’slife, you are welcome to attend the
Lehigh Valley Baptist Church4702 Colebrook Avenue
Emmaus, PA 18049
Or call us at (610) 965 4700 or 1-800-893-9586.