“Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good, for His lovingkindness endures forever. Let the redeemed of Yahweh say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary and gathered from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.” (Psalm 107:1-3) It was November 9th, 1990, before the sun was shining on our side here in the States. The temperature outside was 19 degrees Fahrenheit, and at precisely 5:54 AM God had sovereignly decreed that I would be born into this world. “You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and intricately woven in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unshaped substance; and in Your book all of them were written the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” (Psalm 139:13-16) Elmira, New York was the place of my birth. Born to Kimberly and Tony Glover; I was my father’s first born. In God’s sovereignty He knew and planned my name accordingly, Tony James Glover Jr.. I grew up in a family of six, that including myself; in order from oldest to least it was as follows; Ma, Dad, David, Randy, myself, and Nicholas (Nick). Born into a family where my mother professed faith, but to her own confession as of only some years ago, was not genuinely born again. My father, as far back as I can remember, was always a professing atheist. He mocked the things of God and would ridicule the miracles found in the word of God. I had a father who would mostly be away from the house working to provide for his family. That being said, I longed for time with him, looked up to him, and followed after him. I would take on his beliefs at a fairly young age, roughly around my pre-teenage years. Proclaiming myself to be an atheist and often mocking and verbally abusing those who professed faith in God. Once I got to high school, I truly was showing forth the wicked corruption that was within my heart. “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) It was four years spent in prideful rebellion to the One who gave me life and sustained my every waking moment. I would hook up with girls and sleep with them for bragging rights; I cut down others as I exalted self; I rebelled against my parents at about every corner I could; I began skipping school to hang out with friends; I dove head long into drugs and alcohol. “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is lying at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:7) The evil and sinful rebellion toward God that I engaged in did not stop at high school but carried on into my twenties, almost until I was thirty.
By God’s grace and His providence, in 2010 He allowed me to meet my wife, Sabrina, through an online gaming site when I was 19 years old. She was 13 about to turn 14 at the time. When she turned 18 in 2014, I was still living with my parents at the time but had gotten their consent for us to go to Virginia and pick her up and allow her to live with us. It was less than a year after her arrival, we had our first-born son, Tony James Glover III, named after his grandfather and I. In June of 2017 God blessed us with another child, this being our first daughter. Sabrina Salomea Glover named after her mother. It was only 5 days after Sabrina’s birth that we had decided to move down to Myrtle Beach, SC. We came to Myrtle Beach to help care for my wife’s grandmother, Sieglinde. She was wheelchair-bound, on hospice care and had no one other than my wife’s mother, Adora, here to help. It was in November of 2017 that Sieglinde would end up passing away. It was almost immediately after Sieglinde’s passing that my wife began to question me pertaining to things of the faith. I had little knowledge from what I could recall my mother speaking of when we were growing up, and very little and sporadic church attendance during my early childhood. I believe that God was working on the both of us at this point, as we started seeking for God and seeking the answers to life’s greatest questions. “as it is written, ‘THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME WORTHLESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.’” (Romans 3:10-12) Seeking God doesn’t happen for the natural man, as we hear from the word of God “And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19) I can testify to God’s work within the soul of a man to make Him start seeking, because previous to this I was in love with my sin, bound in chains to it, continued not caring for God until He had begun a work in me.
I started reading my Bible that I had been given from my father-in-law. Reading it at a rate of 10 chapters every morning as I woke to my normal morning routine, as was tradition, waking at 4 AM and going into the bathroom to smoke pot. My wife got caught up in seeking God through man-centered preaching and teaching from the likes of Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Steven Furtick, and more. I eventually began to watch Elevation church online with her every Sunday morning. It fed into my idolatry of self, being that it was man-centered preaching. It was designed in a sense to make you feel as if you were a good person, that God loves you just the way you are. The preaching became more and more dull to me as time went on, we watched it for a little over a year, while giving to this false ministry that guised itself under the name of God but spoke of a God different from that of which He has revealed Himself through His word. One day while helping my wife by folding laundry, I figured I would turn on YouTube and look for an Elevation sermon. Upon typing Elevation into the search bar, I got many sermons to choose from with a more recent video from a woman that went by the name Doreen Virtue. God providentially allowed such a result to appear that day at that exact time, near the top of the recommended search results. I turned it on, listening to the entirety of this interview with a ex-staff member of Elevation who called out Steven Furtick for the unbiblical things that he had done and was known to still be doing. I knew that God was leading me away from that, by His grace. I knew I had to show the video to my wife but also knew that she was one who was led by feelings. So, I urged her to listen to the video, with no pre-suppositions, not allowing feelings to hinder the truth being spoken by this woman and this ex-staff member of Elevation. It was God’s grace that He worked in opening our eyes to the truth of this so called “church” that we had been watching for over a year. However, even at this point, I continued on in the drugs, continued on in the theft, all the while playing the hypocrite because the word of God was becoming more real to me, God was at work through His word by His Spirit.
It was sometime in 2020 that I ended up stealing some heirlooms of my wife’s grandmother’s left to her side of the family. I then proceeded to sell these for somewhere in the amount of $5,000 and used every last penny to get drugs with. On Halloween (or what we now refer to as Reformation Day) of 2020, I convinced my wife who was never into drugs to take marijuana edibles with me. She overdosed on them, sending her into a full-blown panic/anxiety attack. She lost consciousness and was shaking uncontrollably. On my knees beside the bed, seeking to comfort her and keep an eye on her condition, I felt useless. I felt the weight of my sin fall heavily upon me. These drugs and not just marijuana, far worse than that, had long been my instruments of idolatry. They were what I desired in order to bow the knee to self, seeking my own pleasure. They kept me from my family, stealing many years, drastically altering my character, and furthermore drastically altering my body for the worse. I cried out to God confessing my sin, forsaking it that very same night, and running to the mercy found in Christ. The next day I reached out to the guy I had gotten the drugs from, told him I was now following Jesus Christ, and told him to come get the drugs free of charge, I just wanted them gone. I proceeded to take the beer and liquor I had in the house and pour it all down the drain. It truly was like a Road to Damascus experience in the sense that my wife could see not only the physical of getting rid of the drugs and alcohol, but I was once marked by immense anger, impatience, unforgiveness, filthy language and speech; and yet God by His saving grace had caused me to be born again. She was now witnessing her husband unwilling to use such language, unwilling to watch the same shows and movies filled with language, blasphemy, and nudity; she witnessed her husband become understanding, loving, forgiving, patient, calm, self-controlled, and no longer easily angered. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) God had brought me from death to life, raised me up to a living hope, and this not of myself, not in the least, but all according to the faith which He had graciously given me in the person and work of His Son, the risen Lord Jesus Christ. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5)
Salvation was not the end of the story but was merely the beginning. It was through Doreen Virtue’s videos that I found the likes of Ray Comfort. Through watching Ray Comfort’s videos, by God’s providence, I would have videos appear in my recommended section from pastors like John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, Ligonier Ministries, Paul Washer, and Voddie Baucham. Between that dreadful night on October 31st, 2020, Voddie’s videos on “Brokenness”, “Forgiveness”, and “The World, the Flesh, and the Devil”, Ray Comfort’s almost innumerable evangelistic videos and sermons like “Hell’s Best Kept Secret”, other various sermons from the above mentioned pastors, and most importantly from daily reading and meditating on the word of God, I had truly grasped repentance, and was actively repenting which continues to this day. God brought me from death to life, all through the glorious gospel of Christ. He is the one who gave me eyes to behold His word, His Son, and the truths found therein. He gave me ears to hear the gospel, and a new heart that He made receptive to receive the life-giving gospel. If I would have been asked 15 years ago (even 5 years ago) if I thought I would be where I am at today, I would have laughed and honestly would have ridiculed the person asking for even mentioning it. Never did I think I would be a Christian, but it is all the grace of God. He chose me before the foundation of the world. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:3-6) He called me unto Himself just nine days before my 30th birthday. He has saved me from my sins, the wrath of God that I justly deserve; He saved me from the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and is saving from the presence of sin in my life. “But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:4-10) The more I was in His word, the more the Spirit convicted me of and brought to my attention. I knew it was high time to be part of a local body of believers as God’s word calls us to. I googled “reformed Baptist churches near me” as I knew that’s what Voddie was. Cornerstone Church of Myrtle Beach (CCMB) was the top result, so I reached out via email to the elder of the church, Pastor Rusty Fulp. He graciously went back and forth with me on some questions I had before coming. He and His wife Vanessa had arranged to meet with us for dinner and get to know one another better and answer any further questions. I believe it was January of 2021 I had taken my family to Cornerstone for the first time. Within only a couple to a few months’ time, we had been through their membership meetings, and became members of Cornerstone, were baptized and have been a part of that dear local body for 4 years now.
Walking with the Lord for four years now, I’ve learned that this is far from the modern view of Christianity that is widely believed and accepted today. Life does not get better or perfect when you are called of God. In fact, life was much easier outside of Christ as I had not a care in the world for things like sin, God, judgment, righteousness, holiness, etc… It wasn’t until becoming a Christian that I recognized it truly is a daily battle, we are entering into warfare, spiritual warfare. Our flesh wages war against the Spirit that now resides within us, seeking to lead us astray into our sinful desires. Not only this but Satan is constantly looking to devour and deceive even the elect. The world would seek to have you keep your faith silent, entice you to covet and idolize happiness, material goods, money, fame, the next best thing; it is constantly seeking to indoctrinate with that which is anti-thetical to the word of God. However, it is God who is worthy of all praise, worship, honor, reverence, and adoration. We must obey Him, for we cannot serve two masters, we cannot have one foot in the world and one in the Kingdom. It just doesn’t work that way, God does not allow for anyone to share His throne or His glory, it is His alone. I praise God for the work He has done in and through me, allowing me to truly step up and become the man I have been called to be, the husband I’ve been called to be, the father I’ve been called to be, and the son I’ve been called to be, all through the help of my elders and most importantly through the word of God. By God’s grace I had begun starting to lead my family in daily worship soon after joining Cornerstone. It was also the mercy and grace of God that enabled me to reach out to all family and friends with the gospel upon conversion, most of which spurned the gospel message and damaged the relationships that once existed, some completely turning away from me. In that reaching out, God used the truth of His word and my feeble efforts to obey Him, to bring about biblical truth and self-examination in my mother’s life. Whom to my knowledge had shown and still shows all the fruit of the new birth shortly thereafter and has strengthened that relationship. She actually reached out to me to help her find a reformed church in Greeneville, TN for her, and she now is a member of Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church in Greeneville, TN.
God has just begun His work in me, and by His Spirit at work in me, along with (very minimal compared to His work) my obedience and cooperation, He is growing me into the likeness of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. My sanctification is far from perfect, in fact there have already been ups and downs, it’s a struggle, but it’s not left entirely to me, and I praise Him for that. God has graciously brought me a long way from where I started, having been new to reformed theology, I entered a cage-stage Calvinism for a while. Thankfully He saw me through that and strengthened my understanding of the doctrines of grace, as well as my help me to see that as much as it is God’s sovereignty, there is very much still man’s responsibility in the word of God. I am still daily reading the word of God, studying to the best of my ability, and meditating on it throughout the day, and have been through the Bible I think around 4 or 5 times now. It’s been through me just as much, and I praise God for it. Every time I come to His word, I am refreshed, nourished, and by His grace having my eyes opened to things that I somehow missed in previous times of reading through Holy Scripture. This all the power, work, and grace of God through His Holy Spirit. Anyhow, I’ve rambled on long enough, and I really wanted to finish off with a gospel presentation. However, that can be the next article I can work on. Let’s close with the word of God. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25)