Chris' Testimony

I told you last week I would post the testimony of a man I baptized Sunday. Chris Ruth wanted to detail his journey to God with family & friends. Here is what he shared in our church just before he was baptized.

Testimony

Greetings and welcome to Redemption Ministries. My name is Christopher Walter Ruth and I am very happy to be here with you today. I apologize to Pastor Steve and his family for referring to this church as Redemption Ministry, it is actually Redemption Ministries - plural. They do much more than simply run a church. I suppose that’s where the Ministries part comes in.

I would like to thank you all for coming today in support of this church, in support of yourselves as fellow children of God, or in support of me and the commitment I have made. Hopefully you are here for all three reasons, but regardless, I am pleased to see you all.

Before I give my testimony, I would like to introduce and honor my two new best friends. They are my father and mother, Donald and Theresa Ruth. If not for their continual support, love, and the powerful prayers of my mother, I would not be alive and well as you see me here today.

I would like to read and present them with framed copies of letters that I wrote recently.



Now you may ask why my mother’s poem was short and my father’s letter was quite detailed. I believe that my mother knows she is quite special to me and our heavenly father. However, I feel that my father needs a little more encouragement to feel special.

Please give them both a hand…



And now for my personal testimony…

I stand before you, a weak sinner composed of flesh, but after today, I shall be strong and filled with the Holy Spirit.

I have been through 29 years of depression
27 years of lustful thoughts and excessive pornography
23 years of chronic marijuana use
23 years of binge drinking
The last 6 years without working or being a productive member of society
2 years of heavy cocaine use
And worst of all, I made 3 attempts at taking my own life.



As I have confessed, I made 3 attempts on my life. After the third attempt, I realized that if I tried again, I would be successful. I could not let that be my legacy to my mother, my family, and my friends. It finally sunk in. I realized that I, alone, was powerless, and I quickly admitted myself to the White Pine Behavioral Health Unit at Saginaw Community Hospital.

I spent a full week in that mental hospital, and at that time, it was far and above, the best week of my life. I learned to laugh and enjoy life without drugs. I learned that by sharing my story, I could help others as they helped me. At the time, I was without faith, but by confessing my defects, I unknowingly opened myself up to new ideas.

I am forever grateful to the entire staff at White Pine and also to the Saginaw County Department of Human Services for picking up the tab. I had spent the last of my money on drugs and didn’t plan on needing living expenses. I was so very very sad. People who didn’t know me personally, gave me money and hope, for I had none.

Covenant Hospital has also cleared a 1,200 dollar debt for their pre-screening emergency room admission prior to transferring me to White Pine. I thank them as well.

I highly recommend the treatment center at White Pine for anyone with suicidal thoughts or severe mental conditions. During my stay, I found that many patients had been petitioned by the courts for their mandatory stays, and some of them made great progress because of it. I implore you all to seek a similar petition for suicidal friends & family. It may be their only chance, but you must do it for the right reasons and in a caring way.

While I was a patient at White Pine, I met many wonderful people. There was one particularly religious woman who told the rest of us during a crafts activity: “You don’t need money, All you need is Jesus”. Being a non-believer, I couldn’t resist a little humor at her expense, and I said “ Well it’s kind of hard to spend Jesus at a strip club!” we all laughed, but not her…

At the time, I had no idea how wrong and how right I was. I was very wrong to persecute her for her beliefs, and also, what I did not know was:, IF YOU HAVE JESUS, YOU DON’T NEED A STRIP CLUB! I have since asked for forgiveness from God for that remark as well as many other similar ones I have made in my lifetime.

As a matter of fact, I used to regularly persecute and ridicule those I called “Jesus Freaks” and “Bible Bangers”. I would consider them weak, ignorant, annoying, and most of all hypocritical. I also thought they were all the same. I now know that Christianity has many “True Believers” who are strong, intelligent, interesting, and free from hypocrisy.

I will say that over the past several months, I have often referred to myself with joy and happiness as a “FULL-ON JESUS-FREAK” I belong, I feel welcome, I feel special, and I have never felt better in my life.

I don’t really consider myself a “Bible-Banger”, but I would not mind being called a “Bible-Nudger” or a “Bible-Whisperer”. Regardless, I am now open-game for persecution, and I look forward to taking on the enemy as a true soldier and servant of God!

The devil does not attack us in strip clubs, bars, and casinos. He owns those places, and conspires to create trendy or fashionable styles which undermine “True Faith”. The devil attacks us in our dreams, our cars, our homes, our schools, and believe-it-or-not, the devil attacks us in our churches! We must be very discerning about what we believe, even in church. If there is no basis in the Word, you are probably being deceived. While the “True Believers” are probably a minority among all church-goers, I no longer categorically dismiss them. All church-goers are not hypocrites, all lawyers are not evil, all men are not sex-fiends, and all inner-city residents are not criminals. I ask the Lord almost daily to help me see beyond my stereotypes in all people, because we are all equally deserving of His love.

One more quick note on the Devil. Satan really gets fired-up when you get closer to the truth. If you start noticing coincidences, strange messages, and other seemingly supernatural events, be objective and realize that the Devil will shout to get your attention away from God & the Truth. I suggest you seek guidance from a pastor instead of jumping to conclusions. I mention this because I have been tricked many times, and I am certain I have more battles to come.

Once I got out of the mental hospital, my life stresses were back, but I was now partially prepared to handle them. My first week out, I had an appointment with a substance abuse therapist. The first thing he did was question my religious beliefs. I was furious! I almost stormed out, never to return, but suddenly I felt calm, and told him that I would try to be open-minded. My therapist also decided to keep things secular. I think he realized my fierce defiance to organized religion. The second week, he recommended to me a secular self-improvement book. I read the book titled “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. I loved the book, it was the best book I had ever read, I told everyone about it, and it introduced me to many wonderful topics including personal spirituality. But at the end of the book, I found out the author was a Christian! That Tricky therapist! Well, that didn’t make me a Christian… yet!

While reading that book, which took several weeks, an old work colleague and neighbor by the name of Steve Niswonger Sr. stopped by to see me. As a fellow engineer, I had admired Steve and his son Steve Jr. for their intelligence, likeability, and pleasant demeanor. I also knew that they had started their own company and might have some leads on jobs. Then he started talking about church! I thought to myself, Not again! Well, I missed the healthy social interaction from the hospital and also thought there may be some single young ladies at church, so I decided to give it a try.

That Sunday was Mothers’ day. Mom, I guess you got more than flowers. I voluntarily went to church for the first time in my life. I was brought up Catholic, but I don’t recall ever going to church voluntarily. I dressed up in my best suit and found out that I was the only person here with a last name other than Niswonger! So much for those ladies!

The church service was quite pleasant. The Niswongers were friendly. And I could not detect the faintest hint of hypocrisy. I decided to come back. I wasn’t hooked, but it was better than loneliness.

I gave a long-time friend, EJ Schwanbeck, a call shortly after that. EJ has been a faithful and devoted Christian the whole 20 years or so I have known him. I told him to sit down. I think he still fell over when I told him I had been to church. I think he was nearly as happy about my revelation as when he married his wonderful wife Shannon, or when they had their adorable daughter Morgan. He has been and continues to be an inspiration to me. I apologize for saying to him that religion is a crutch so many years ago. I thank you, EJ, for your faith, your inspiration, and your prayers.


Also around that time, I ran into an old high school neighbor, Steve Simmet, at his garage sale in Lathrup Park. My dad was interested in some scaffold levelers that Steve was selling, but I didn’t get back with Steve until I ran into him and his wife Stephanie while I was bicycling in their neighborhood a week or so later. Out of the blue, Stef invited me to a cookout on the Sunday before Memorial day. I didn’t really know Steve that well, but I thought that perhaps Stef had some cute friends, so I thought Why Not? Well, there were two couples, three children, and me at the cookout. Strike two, or so I thought. I ended up sharing my story, and Stephanie invited me to check out a bible study and church service at Peace Lutheran Church.

I decided to check out the bible-study called “The Source”. Finally!!! there were some attractive single ladies. The strange thing was, I was so thrilled by the topic that I forgot all about the ladies. I met Kevin and Nikki Hofman, and I was mesmerized by their story of the spiritual healing of their unborn daughter Kiersten. Contrary to the best medical science available, they prayed and fought and believed and thanked the Lord for their healthy baby girl. They had true faith in her health even before the birth. They chose to disagree with science, and their faith was justly rewarded. They have a healthy daughter who just celebrated her first birthday. They don’t brag. They don’t badmouth anyone. They are definitely not hypocrites. They are loving parents. Hearing and seeing them is the highpoint of my week. They were pivotal to this day, the highpoint of my life. Thank you Stephanie, for letting the Holy Spirit work through you, and a blessed Thank you to the Hofman’s, Kevin, Nikki, and Kiersten for being the most spectacular rainbow I have ever witnessed.

I tell everyone I meet. You have to come. You must see. It’s like visiting the Grand Canyon in a church basement!!!

Admittedly, I was blown away by this bible study, but I still had some loose ends about how Christianity really worked. My therapist suggested some books by a popular author named C.S. Lewis. CS Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, and is known as a particularly insightful man who turned from atheism to Christianity. I read his book “Mere Christianity” and I found again, THE BEST BOOK I EVER READ!!! If you think Christianity is full of holes and loose ends, read this book. It stitched up the holes and answered every argument I had against Faith. I was hooked!

Since I had begun to refer to myself as a fledgling believer, my awesome therapist suggested a Christian Faith-based 12-step recovery program for help in remaining free of drugs. This incredible program is called Celebrate Recovery, and it meets on Tuesdays here in Saginaw at the New Life Christian Fellowship church on Shattuck near Lawndale. There are other meetings in both Midland and Bay City on other days. Pete Diaz, who just celebrated a very significant milestone in his recovery, started and leads the program. I thank Pete and his wife Sookie for their significant efforts to help many people as well as myself.

This program is totally positive and encompasses recovery from drugs, alcohol, co-dependency, sexual addiction, pornography, anger, depression, overeating, and the list continues to grow. Celebrate Recovery helps to free its members from sin in all its various manifestations. It was through the discussions within Celebrate Recovery that I realized that my drug abuses were driven primarily by my addiction to pornography. The other secular recovery programs help thousands of people every day, but they would have only given me a temporary fix and not my current everlasting success.

While I was beginning to realize how big my pornography problem was, I would pray to God for strength, signs, and assistance in my spiritual growth. Well, he came through for me in many ways.

For example, I have lived in my house on Thistle Drive for ten years and up until a month or two ago, the power has only been out for maybe ten seconds in that ten years. On the evening of Friday, the 27th of June, I was about to view my favorite adult DVD, and suddenly the power went out for several hours. Oh well, I thought, there’s always tomorrow. Saturday came, I went to our church cookout, and then went home planning to watch that DVD. I remembered that I had promised to trim the rosebush on the West side of the church, and since the next day was Sunday, I decided to prune the rosebush first. While pruning that rosebush, some very strange things occurred, I was confronted by a stranger who cautioned me about baptism, a very sudden and strong wind blew up, I started saying “Our Father’s” back to back because I was quite freaked out, then a loud bang occurred, and the wind died back down. I quickly finished pruning the rosebush and returned to my house.

There were people out on the street everywhere, I had no idea why. I went inside my house to find the power out. No porn again tonight, I said to myself. I went outside to find that a tree-limb, across the street from my house, had fallen on the power lines. This tree had been professionally trimmed the year before, but All-Powerful really means All-Powerful.

This power outage caused Steve Niswonger Jr. to lose his sermon for the next day on his computer. I think he gave his best sermon that next day, he went off notes and let the Holy Spirit speak through him. I got chills and was brought almost to tears several times.

I am getting a little ahead of the story, so on Sunday morning, the power was still out. Church starts at 10am, and at 9:40 I was preparing to take a shower in the dark, and then… the power came on. I showered and got to church to hear Steve Jr’s awesome sermon.

Now I said on my invitation that I don’t need money, I did that to prevent this day from being corrupted by my greed. I am still weak and composed of flesh. And I really don’t have much money. I tell you this because at that particular service, I was planning to contribute 10 dollars to the church collection, but I only had a 20 dollar bill. It has been over 20 years since a 20 dollar bill meant a lot to me. It means a lot to me right now, but I so enjoyed the service and fellowship that I gave the 20.

I am getting to the point shortly, but there is quite a bit of set-up so please bear with me.

Anyway, later that Sunday I wanted to purchase some inexpensive cologne, so I walked up to Walgreens at State & Center to see what they had. The colognes I was interested in were 32 dollars and I couldn’t justify that in my current financial state. I decided to walk down to the new Rite-Aid in Green Acres Plaza and see if they had a more inexpensive selection. While walking out, I noticed an attractive woman bending down to check out some make-up. Her pants were coming down a bit, reminiscent of a plumber’s, but far more enticing. I stared and had a few moments of guilty pleasure. I felt bad, I felt weak, I felt dirty, and as I exited the store for the first time in my adult life, I asked the Lord for forgiveness. I asked him to forgive my transgression in that store. I took several steps toward Rite-Aid, looked down and saw a crisp new 10 dollar bill lying beside some trash.

Wow… WOW! Did that really just happen!!! I was amazed!

God made change for me! For Me!!!

God also made change in me! I scratched-up & threw out my adult DVD’s that very night. He gave me the strength to overcome my weakness, and He helped me by knocking out the power to my home, and letting me witness His compassion.

As a finish to the story, I went to Rite-aid, and I bought a bottle of cologne and a bottle of vitamin water for a total of 9 dollars and 96 cents.



I have found purpose and meaning outside of and in spite of society. I will no longer compare myself to others or others to me. We should all strive for the perfection of Jesus Christ and be willing to give our lives, as He did, to save our brothers and sisters of humanity. By giving my life to God, I am now free, free to pursue my dreams without earthly chains. I must also state that my dreams are His Dreams, for all things originate in our Father,

I have a dark past. Today, I am leaving that behind. I will face hardships, loss, and tragedy in the future. I do not fear them or waste time worrying. I live only in the present, because God’s biggest present to us is not our past or future, it is our present, dwelling in Him.



The devil dwelled in me for decades, leaving me depleted, dirty, dark, and depressed.

And now: The Word welcomes me and washes me with a wonderful wellspring of hope and love.

Can I really do this? What makes this possible? How can this be?

It is definitely possible…
- Due to the grace afforded us by the death of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
- Due to the faith in God I now have.
- Due to my confessions of sin and asking forgiveness.
- Due to my repentance, or changing my direction away from the shadows of sin and moving toward the Light of God.
- And due to my Baptism where my sinful life will die.
- I will then experience a rebirth and be cleansed, refreshed, and filled with the Holy Spirit so that I can endure with the strength of God’s personal direction both in this world and for all eternity.




Ask… ASK… ASK!!!!

I never used to ask anyone for help. This is a sin of pride or arrogance. I am now able and willing to ask for help. I ask all of you to help me stay on the path of righteousness, but most of all I ask our Heavenly Father for the strength to listen to others.

Please do yourselves a favor and ask God for what you need, and ask in Jesus’ name.

And in closing, I would like to thank then Niswongers for graciously accepting me into their family here at Redemption Ministries, and I would like to thank each and every one of you here today. You lift me up. Thank you.

Today was a Good Day

When attempting to start a church there are good days with, it seems, long stretches of wondering what to do next. We pray, fast, and live our lives and trust God for what the day will bring. We are completely committed to our relationship with Jesus Christ and it is our desire to do the work that He has called us to. Today was a good day. I baptized a man today who has made significant changes in a life ravaged by sin. He is excited about what God has done in his life lately. He has taken time to repent and has removed things from his life that would keep him from progressing with God. He has a tremendous testimony that he shared today before the baptism and agreed to let me post it in my blog. I will be posting it in the next few days, as soon as he sends me a copy. It will inspire you. Pray for us and our work for more good days ahead.