Pastor Raul Ries Testimony - Cont.

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One thing I never wanted to do, I never wanted to be like my dad, and become a physical abuser. Well, I did.  The first thing I did was start pushing Sharon around, kicking her and punching her.  Pretty soon, I was choking her but by the grace of God, the angels protected her.  It went on for about 4 ½ years until finally, she decided to leave me. When I realized she was going to leave me, I decided that nobody would ever have her or my kids.  The best way to do that was to execute her and my kids, and kill myself.  As the police would come, I would just shoot it out with them and that would be the end of everything.  And then nobody wins.

When I got home, she had already gone to church.  As a matter of fact, it was Easter Sunday, April 2, 1972, and I had already made up my mind to kill her.  So I got home, and I saw her packed bags on the side.  I walked into the house, went to the closet, got my rifle and loaded it with eighteen rounds.  I started walking around the house; I began to destroy my whole house, just knocking down everything.  I went next to the TV and I was just standing there. I was so angry and so mad inside; I took the butt of the rifle and hit the TV.  When I hit it, it came on.  And when the TV came on, there was this bald headed guy talking about Jesus, it was Chuck Smith.

He was with Katherine Kuhlman, on one of those programs with “The Jesus People”.  I was listening and I wanted to shoot him with my gun, but I couldn’t pull the trigger.  It seemed as he was talking on the TV; he was talking directly to me.  You know how that is?  It was like a bow was being pulled back, the arrows were letting go and they were stabbing me in the heart.  And I kept saying, “Man, why don’t you shut up?  What are you trying to say?”  All of a sudden, I found myself on my knees, listening to him. And for the first time in my life, I began to cry like a baby.  You know it’s not too cool to cry when you’re hardened.  I just began to cry out to God, “God if you’re really real, and you are a God that can save people, as you saved my wife, I want you tonight, right know, to come into my life.”  And you know what blew me away?  I didn’t see lightening or hear a voice, I just, by faith, prayed a prayer.  And I felt a complete change in my life.  As I got up from my knees, I wiped off my tears and put away my rifle.  I got in my car and went looking for my wife, to tell her what had happened to me.  I couldn’t find her.  As I entered the church that she attended, they were giving the altar call.  So I just went up to the altar, and when they got done counseling me, I went home.

When I got home, I knocked on the door.  The light was already on, my wife was at home, and I heard her weeping and crying inside.  I knocked on the door and said, “Sharon open the door, it’s me.”   She was just crying and the whole thing.  What she did was put the latch on the door, then opened it, and said, “What do you want?”   I said, “I’m born again!  I accepted Christ.”  She shut the door in my face.  She didn’t really believe it.  So I knocked again and I said, “Sharon honest, I’m born again.”  She finally opened the door.  It took probably about a year and a half to two years for her to believe, as she watched my life change.  But what blew her away was that immediately, I got saved, man, I got saved.