Bob Cassell, Messenger
By God’s marvelous grace, he reached down, heard my needful cry for his merciful salvation, and redeemed my dark and wholly lost soul. This occurred after he called, and I responded after reading a Gideon placed bible in a small cell in Chicago, Illinois.
His so great salvation was an immediate and powerful new creation in my previously rebellious and desperately lost soul. This new creation was something I did not have or know about previously. I was awakened by a new understanding that there was a new man in me. The old corrupt things I was doing no longer seemed to fit in the mindset of this new man. Yet, there was a familiarity that had been a controlling habit to do bad rather than good. I certainly noticed, something old and something new. The old was the worst of my prior life, and I had just enough new light to know it was no longer proper for the old to control the new. This something new was unknown, and I had to develop an understanding of this something new that certainly was not there previously.
This is simple, but one of the first new things I noticed was my vocabulary. I had been accustomed to cursing to and at everyone and everything. It was a part of my life and I had been doing it for many years and so had all of my friends. The day after I received Jesus Christ, as my Savior, someone said something curt to me and I responded with *&%##, expletive deleted! Wham!! Something occurred within me that was new! That language, that had been known so well, was immediately observed as something that did not fit. After realizing the language was not appropriate but crude my mind went to the night before where I saw myself on my knees calling on the Lord to save me, and I said “yes, Bob something happened to you that is new, and all of the old Bob and his inappropriate thoughts actions and language have been forgiven. Now, it is incumbent on you to embrace a mindset that is compatible with the new you. This was amazing to me, and the application was to only one area of my life.
Let me remind you, I was confined for a major crime and faced an uncertain period of time in prison. What did I do after realizing there was a new me in me? I began to pray for the first time in my life. I did not know how to pray or what the bible taught about prayer because I had never prayed. I simply directed my mind and inner voice to God. I knew I had directed my need for salvation to the Lord God and for some reason never doubted I was now a new member of his family. This is impossible for me to explain, I simply knew God called me to his light of truth, and that I had received Jesus Christ as my only hope of Heaven, and that he answered me. It was entirely new and refreshing to know I could pray to a previously unknown and ignored God and that he would hear and answer according to his will.
Thank God he had a will and a plan that was far beyond my ability to even contemplate. I simply, directed my thoughts to him and believed he would provide the guidance I needed for understanding this astonishing and wonderfully incomprehensible new life. I recall, thinking about where I had been, what I had done, and despised the old selfish, self-consuming actions. This most blessed new life came inside my soul immediately, and I knew beyond any doubt I had found that for which I had been looking. No one needed to tell me I had found the greatest treasure in my entire life; I knew this was the crown jewel of my entire life.
I was so happy, satisfied, and assured. I had a compelling desire to tell others immediately. You would not expect to find others who were members of God’s family in this place of strict confinement, but I did! I noticed one individual who prayed on his knees every night, in the presence of all the other prisoners. We became friends, enjoyed sweet fellowship, and were thrilled at the beauty and depth of the word of God. After his release this sweet believer sent me a Scofield bible that contained great comments and notes that were very helpful. There was another believer in this unholy place who was helpful in assuring me of a clear and understandable Gospel. I don’t recall his name but he was from Wilmington, Delaware. These individuals will be in my memory for the rest of my life. Their influence was just what I needed. After their release I followed their lead, studied God’s word, and memorized scriptures every day. The word of God accumulated and became the fortress of my soul. His word fortified me in a dry and truth barren place of miserable confinement.
Much strength came to me in this unholy place as I memorized and studied God’s holy word. I loved this new life and I loved the strength I received when I tucked his word away into my young and immature soul. I memorized many bible verses and the entire book of Ephesians, which floods my soul, even today as I recall these 150 blessed scriptures.
This period of time was my Spiritual boot camp wherein, I studied incessantly and learned so much of what I didn’t know. It was a tough time, but it was a season for growth, development and learning. For that I am forever grateful.
I learned a new behavior pattern and developed new habits with a determination to know what I didn’t know, that God wanted me to know. I developed new habits, new knowledge, new life skills, and desires. I wanted to know how to do things better, and I wanted to know what to know in my new life. The desire to know was new and fresh and I pursued the Christian way of life with sincerity and great vigor.
After my release I met new and wonderful friends at a small bible Church that prior to my conversion I would go out of my way to avoid. But in walking this new path, I loved these people deeply and enjoyed their fellowship. I also learned to love many of the things I once hated and hated the things I once loved.
During this pioneering phase of my life, I learned to stop, look, and listen to what I had been doing and realized all of my bad behavior was to my own demise. A member of this Church seemed to take interest in me and offered much needed advice. I was learning to stop, look, and listen, and a caring gentleman, Gene Smith, gave me some of the best advice I had ever heard from which to begin a career. Gene said, “Bob, in order to be successful in life, you will need to be prepared so you can use the talent God has given to you.” He suggested three categories, and I loved and desperately needed the guidance. “You need to consider all of your strengths and weaknesses, what you do well and what you do not, what you want to do and what you do not. Great career opportunities are in sales, but you need the right kind of personality for that, and I think you have it; also, you may consider a specialized academic education, in that way you will be telling any future employer you can learn and process information that will equip you for the whole of your life. Then, if you don’t pursue either of these endeavors you may consider specialized training for a trade of some kind.
So, be a salesman, become educated, or be trained for a trade. In other words, have something to offer for the rest of your life.”
I had never heard this kind of information and it electrified me. It was what I needed in order to launch a career and get on in my unprepared life. This information was vital and perfectly suited for my untrained and uneducated soul.
Adopting his advice, I went to college and majored in accounting and business management. Through a passion for personal bible study, I also, became educated in the scriptures, studied at Moody bible College, Dallas Theological Seminary and stood on the shoulders of many dedicated and well prepared bible theologians.
I have been privileged to Pastor two churches, teach radio bible broadcasts and conduct many home bible studies as well as traveling throughout the USA to hundreds of Gideon bible/Pastor conferences. Presently, I am working through this blog to continue communicating the word of God to as many as may be reached by and through this venue.
If you are discouraged or not prepared to launch a career for whatever reason, please stop, look, listen, and learn from someone who has traveled many unseemly, perilous backroads to find, by the grace of God, and friends, like Gene Smith a better road that leads to a better career and life.
It is by the pure Grace of God that I am what I am, and what I am is what he has made of me for the many years I have lived on this declining and Satan influenced earth. I have spent the greater part of my life in an attempt to make complicated things simple and simple things understandable. All that I hope to communicate has been deposited on the bottom shelf for ready reference and learning. May God open your mind and direct you to the unfathomable riches of his grace that is within his unsurpassed holy word.
In closing, please consider what you need that you do not have! If what you don’t have is happiness and fulfillment, it may be the emptiness and darkness is present because the King of Glory doesn’t reside within the inner recesses of your confused and empty soul.
If any unwise soul refuses to meet God exclusively on his terms, by exercising non meritorious faith in the person of Jesus Christ then, he is not met at all. If God does not come to you, and reveal himself in the person of Christ, it is clear you will continue to live in unbelief and darkness.
A loving God does not reject the unbeliever, the unbeliever rejects the love of God as demonstrated on the cross. How much faith is needed to appropriate salvation in Christ? It takes only enough to embrace him as the object of your weak faith.
If any unbeliever rejects what is true and fills the void with what is false, that person is maladjusted and will spend eternity in the lake of fire. Don’t let this be you! Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners lest you be weary and faint in your minds Hebrews 12:3.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Acts 16:3. This could be you!
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Romans 10:13
This could be you! What have you got to lose? Call on him, he will always answer, and he will always save.
