Whatever Satan Told Me To Do – I Did

Whatever Satan Told Me To Do – I Did Whatever Satan Told Me To Do – I Did

My name is Sam Blair and this is my story.

I was a man filled with sin until I invited the Lord,Jesus Christ, into my heart when I was 72 years old and my life waschanged forever. I was saved by his precious blood and Iknow I have been forgiven of my sins and, by his grace, I will spendeternity with him. (Note: “Saved” is a biblical term referringto the forgiveness of sins by God and the rescue of the person fromthe power and penalty of that sin. This is God’s requirement foreverlasting life.)

I’ll start my story when I was a little boy. I was brought up in aChristian family near Philadelphia. My mother and father were bothsaved. My father died suddenly in the flu epidemic of 1918.I was seven years old. It happened overnight. Every man on the streetdied except one — and he was a heavy drinker who lived next door.When my father died, we had nothing. My mother had to go out and geta job to support the family. She had really wanted a little girl, nota boy, and she started dressing me like a little girl. She was verydominant — so much so that she corrected my every move. I vowed tomyself that I would get as far away from home as I could when I grewup.

When I got out of high school, she had already gone to the bankacross the street to arrange a job for me — so she could look outthe window to see when I went in and came out. The bank had me drivechecks to Philadelphia every day in an old Pontiac. I passed theKeebler Cookie Plant each trip, and decided to stop in and ask for ajob. Well, lo and behold, they hired me a week later.

At this time I was still living at home. I can remember going intoPhiladelphia with my aunt’s three boys, and they all professed to besaved. My mother immediately threw that up to me and asked why Iwasn’t saved. I kept going in to listen to the evangelists and it wasalways the same story when I got home. “Didn’t you get saved? Whyaren’t you saved?” Well, finally I professed to be saved evenwhen I knew I really wasn’t. Every Sunday the Brethren would takecommunion. I had to sit in that circle – and I knew if you drank outof that cup and you weren’t saved, you were drinking damnation toyour soul. I went a few more Sundays and then I dropped out.

About that time my company transferred me to Allentown,Pennsylvania. I was almost 18 and I was finally out from under theinfluence of my mother. I joined every club I could. I had no timefor God or the church. I started drinking – and I smoked cigarettes. I was under the spell of Satan. Everything Satan asked me to do,I did. My sins were like the grains of sand under the sea – somany I could not number them. I know now, though, that the Lord hadthem all jotted down. I went on like this for decades.

One day in 1980, about two weeks before Christmas, on a routinevisit to my doctor, he told me he was sending me in town for a coupleof other doctors to look me over. When I got there, I saw by theirsign that they were cancer specialists. What a rudeawakening. Half my mother’s side of the family had died of cancer andmy mother had had cancer earlier. They took a biopsy and told me tocome back the next week. When I left that office and got out onto thestreet, my whole life came right back in front of me. I was thinking,“Here I am, all these years without paying any attention to mysoul.. I think it’s too late. I don’t know whether the Lord will haveme or not.”

I immediately started reading my Bible again – looking to thescriptures. I called the Billy Graham crusade and someone on theother end of the phone told me, “Now just say that you believe,and you’ll be saved.” Well, that wasn’t good enough for me. OneSunday I was watching Dr. Harold Henninger of Canton Baptist Templein Ohio. I heard him say, “are you sitting there watching andlistening to me? If you are, and you don’t have a church, you need toget up off that seat and go out and find an independent,Bible-preaching, King James Version Baptist church. Don’t sit here infront of this TV listening to me.” I knew I was in soul trouble,so I went out the next week and got a newspaper and picked out theLehigh Valley Baptist Church. Then I couldn’t find it. I went to thepolice station and they sent me to the wrong place. I went back tothe police station and a woman there said she thought it was on theother end of the town across from the bowling alley.

By this time, a week had gone by and I went back to find out theresults of my biopsy. The doctors told me they had good news for me.It was only scar tissue in my stomach. I didn’t have cancer. I gotout of that office and got down on my hands and knees in the street,at the corner of Sixteenth and Liberty and thanked God for sparing meand and imploring Him, “My God, I want to be saved”.

I started reading my Bible more than ever and I went to the LehighValley Baptist Church. The first four seats I sat in, people told meI was sitting in their seats. “Well,” I thought, “they mustpay for their pews in here, I better leave”. On my way out someone stopped me and told me that wasn’t the case and he got me a seat.Of course, I then heard the gospel being preached, and a couple ofmen followed up with me and I told them I wanted to be saved. Theysaid, “just say you believe and you’ll be saved”. Well,I justcouldn’t do that. I thought back to those years long ago when I gavea false profession.

One night I was reading my Bible and I thought, “what am I evergoing to do? “ I asked God to please hear my voice. In themorning, I got down on my knees by the side of my bed, and I said,”Oh, God, what must I do to be saved? I want the Lord,Jesus Christ to be my own personal Savior. Come into my heart, ChristJesus, and save my soul.” At that precise moment, without ashadow of a doubt, I stood on the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and Iknew I was saved. I could hardly believe it. He and I metjust like that. I was “saved by faith – not by works, lestany man should boast”(Ephesians 2:8). It was a gift of God. I wassaved by the blood of my crucified Lord. I got up and shouted,I’m saved. But who was going to believe it. Here Iwas by myself, with no one to share it with. I went up the hill to aneighbor lady who did cleaning for me and said, “Sadie, I justhad my soul saved.” She looked at me like I was crazy and said,“That’s nice. We’ll see how long that lasts”. That was 1983.

It so happened that a couple of men from church came down to seeme to see what I was doing about my soul. I told them I was saved andrelated the whole story, and told them I wanted to be baptized. Theyasked me to come up and tell the congregation about it. They didn’ttell me I was going to have to be up in front of the wholecongregation. But, I did it, and I got baptized.

As I look back at how I was at Satan’s beck-and-call, it’s stillamazing to me how God had to strike me down before I would listen.From that day on I never had any desire to smoke another cigarette,or drink another drink. No desire whatsoever.

My Lord, Jesus Christ, paid for those sins of mine that Icommitted over all those years. He paid it all for the sanctificationof my sins. And now I know I have everlasting life and will dwell inthe house of the Lord forever.

Sam Blair was saved in 1983 when he was 72 years old. He lives inDevon House, Salisbury Township, Pennsylvania. His testimony wasrecorded in February 1995. If you would like to know more about theSavior that changed Sam Blair’s life, you are welcome at the

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