GRACE FROM HEAVEN
A Testimony By Frank Basinger
I had a normal childhood up to the age of twelve. That's when Dad bought me an old flat-top guitar and taught me to play it.
At age thirteen, I got a job at a dairy farm and went to work for twenty-five dollars a week, getting up at three in the morning and milking forty cows before school and again in the afternoon.
On Saturdays, I drove a tractor and mowed fields. I liked doing that, because I got to keep what money I earned. The twenty-five dollars a week that I made milking cows went to Mom and Dad for my shoes, clothes and school lunch money. That Saturday money was MY money.
By the time I was fifteen, I'd gotten me an electric guitar and amplifier and was playing in the beer joints on Friday and Saturday nights. That's where I first started drinking. I was too young to buy it inside, but the guys in the band would buy beer or drinks for me and bring it outside when we took a break. I had already quit the dairy farm by this time. I found out I could make just as much money and not get near as dirty by playing guitar.
This is my story and if part of it sounds super-natural to you, that's because it is and was. It's a story of God's forgiveness and His ability to change lives and I couldn't tell my story and leave God out of it-NO WAY! In the telling of my story, I'm not trying to push God off on anybody. I'm only telling about my encounter with Him. If you have a personal relationship with God, maybe your encounter didn't happen like mine. I've been told mine was unique. If you don't have a personal relationship with God, let me say that it's possible you may have an encounter with Him like I did, and you can have an encounter with Him if you honestly seek Him, for He is never far from us. One of the major obstacles to finding God and having a relationship with Him is pride; strong-willed, "I can handle it", self sufficient, high and haughty pride. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do was throw my manly pride out the window and admit there was something I couldn't do on my own.
I'll just hit the highlights of the next (or following) 25 years, not having time nor space to tell it all. I literally drank up my music career. I had two hit songs in Florida, was doing one-night shows all over Florida and lost it all to alcohol. I found out my wife was running around on me (Yes, I got married the first time at age nineteen), so I left her and my music career and went on a three-month drunk.
I wound up in a wino camp in Washington state . Not only me, but my younger brother and my cousin as well. It's sad to say, but I got my brother hooked on a lot of stuff he might never have tried. He really looked up to me and wanted to do everything I did; and he did, anything with alcohol and every kind of pill you ever heard of. He got addicted to pills for awhile, but eventually got off of them, but I never did.
I took pills, smoked pot, snorted coke, drank anything that would make me high on up until I was forty years old. I was married four times, twice to my current wife. I don't know if I liked being married or was just a hog for punishment! I also lost every good job I ever had to drinking. I used to say I'd quit my job to go back to playing music, but actually I just wanted to pitch a drunk and I knew I'd get fired so I just quit first.
In 1976, I shot and killed a man while I was drunk. Although it was determined to be self-defense, I had nightmares about it and couldn't sleep for seven months. Every night the same nightmare; of a guy so close to my throat with a razor, I had to back up to shoot him. Finally, in desperation, I asked God to forgive me for taking another person's life. You know what? He did! The very moment I asked Him, it was like a thousand pounds was lifted off my shoulders. I slept like a baby that night and have never had that nightmare again; and that was before I was saved!
In 1989, my wife was threatening to leave me again because of my drinking. I was going on vacation with my drinking buddy Luther, and his family. I didn't invite my wife because she just cramped my style. Besides that, it was sort of a last minute deal for me. Luther invited me to go and I wasn't working at the time anyhow, so we got three or four cases of beer and took off for Wilmington, NC. That was on Friday evening. By Monday afternoon I was out of beer. Oh, I forgot to mention, my wife told me right before we left that if I was still drinking when we came back, she was leaving me for good! Like I'd done so many times before, I promised her I'd quit when I came back. Anyhow, since I was already out of beer, I thought maybe this would be a good time to see if I could actually quit, because I knew Barbara was serious about leaving me. Besides that, I figured I could always hit Luther up for some of his vodka if I wanted a drink too bad.
We were staying in a trailer that belonged to some friends of Luther. All weekend long I'd been playing guitar and singing for everybody while we all got high, but Monday night I decided to go to bed early; I wasn't having much fun anyway, being the only one there not drinking. I went into that little bedroom and I thought, I am not going to be able to do this on my own. How many times have I tried to quit on my own and failed miserably? So I decided I would pray and ask God to help me. I was tired of all the lies. I'd lied to myself, my family, my wife, my friends, and I'd lied to God. How many times had I said "God, if you'll just help me get over this one, I promise I'll straighten up and do right"? I was just tiredinside of all those lies. Like I said earlier, it was hard for me to swallow my manly pride and humble myself before God, but I did. I got down on my knees and cried like a baby and poured out my heart to God. I told Him how sorry I was for all the wrong things I'd done and asked His forgiveness. Then I told Him I knew I couldn't quit drinking by my own will-power, but that if He would just take the taste of alcohol away from me, I knew I could quit and stay quit by His will-power. Here's where my story gets kind of supernatural.
When I invited God into my life, it felt like He grabbed a handle on the side of my chest, pulled me open, stepped inside me and filled me with His presence. Immediately my tears stopped and a peace came over me like I'd never known in my life. His presence filled up all the empty parts of my body and soul, even parts I didn't know were empty. I remember thinking, this is what I've been looking for all my life! This is what I've been missing all these years! You'd think after that happening to me that I'd want to run outside and tell someone, wouldn't you? But I didn't. I got up off my knees and got in bed and slept sober for the first time in years.
The next morning, I wanted to tell someone what had happened to me, but I was afraid to tell Luther and the others. I was afraid they would make fun of me and wouldn't believe me, so I didn't tell anyone then, although later on I did tell Luther and his family when we were back in Charlotte. Even though I knew what had happened the night before was real, it was still hard to believe that I'd woke up without a hangover. In fact, about 10:00 that morning I was walking around the yard, wondering when the D.T.'s were going to hit, but it wasn't the D.T.'s that hit, it was God! His presence came all over me, on the outside this time, not on the inside ! It was as if He was saying, "I've cleansed you on the inside , now let me do the outside. It was as if warm honey was poured over my head and slowly covered my whole body, even to the soles of my feet! I don't remember much about the rest of that week, only that the Spirit of God was poured out on me the next day and again the day after that! Both days, it was exactly the same time of day, about 10:00 a.m. I do know that when I got back to Charlotte, my wife sensed a change in me, but didn't know whether to believe me or not. We went to see the pastor who had married us and he helped me understand what had happened to me. I was baptized two weeks later and publicly proclaimed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. That was in 1989 and I'm still proclaiming Him today.
Thanks for reading my story. I pray to God that it will be an encouragement and a blessing to you.
P.S. - - - - I started in 1989 and still do, praying every day: Thanking God for saving me, for keeping me sober and asking Him to be Lord of my life today and every day.
May God bless and keep you by His wonderful grace, as He does me,
Frank Basinger
A Testimony By Frank Basinger
I had a normal childhood up to the age of twelve. That's when Dad bought me an old flat-top guitar and taught me to play it.
At age thirteen, I got a job at a dairy farm and went to work for twenty-five dollars a week, getting up at three in the morning and milking forty cows before school and again in the afternoon.
On Saturdays, I drove a tractor and mowed fields. I liked doing that, because I got to keep what money I earned. The twenty-five dollars a week that I made milking cows went to Mom and Dad for my shoes, clothes and school lunch money. That Saturday money was MY money.
By the time I was fifteen, I'd gotten me an electric guitar and amplifier and was playing in the beer joints on Friday and Saturday nights. That's where I first started drinking. I was too young to buy it inside, but the guys in the band would buy beer or drinks for me and bring it outside when we took a break. I had already quit the dairy farm by this time. I found out I could make just as much money and not get near as dirty by playing guitar.
This is my story and if part of it sounds super-natural to you, that's because it is and was. It's a story of God's forgiveness and His ability to change lives and I couldn't tell my story and leave God out of it-NO WAY! In the telling of my story, I'm not trying to push God off on anybody. I'm only telling about my encounter with Him. If you have a personal relationship with God, maybe your encounter didn't happen like mine. I've been told mine was unique. If you don't have a personal relationship with God, let me say that it's possible you may have an encounter with Him like I did, and you can have an encounter with Him if you honestly seek Him, for He is never far from us. One of the major obstacles to finding God and having a relationship with Him is pride; strong-willed, "I can handle it", self sufficient, high and haughty pride. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do was throw my manly pride out the window and admit there was something I couldn't do on my own.
I'll just hit the highlights of the next (or following) 25 years, not having time nor space to tell it all. I literally drank up my music career. I had two hit songs in Florida, was doing one-night shows all over Florida and lost it all to alcohol. I found out my wife was running around on me (Yes, I got married the first time at age nineteen), so I left her and my music career and went on a three-month drunk.
I wound up in a wino camp in Washington state . Not only me, but my younger brother and my cousin as well. It's sad to say, but I got my brother hooked on a lot of stuff he might never have tried. He really looked up to me and wanted to do everything I did; and he did, anything with alcohol and every kind of pill you ever heard of. He got addicted to pills for awhile, but eventually got off of them, but I never did.
I took pills, smoked pot, snorted coke, drank anything that would make me high on up until I was forty years old. I was married four times, twice to my current wife. I don't know if I liked being married or was just a hog for punishment! I also lost every good job I ever had to drinking. I used to say I'd quit my job to go back to playing music, but actually I just wanted to pitch a drunk and I knew I'd get fired so I just quit first.
In 1976, I shot and killed a man while I was drunk. Although it was determined to be self-defense, I had nightmares about it and couldn't sleep for seven months. Every night the same nightmare; of a guy so close to my throat with a razor, I had to back up to shoot him. Finally, in desperation, I asked God to forgive me for taking another person's life. You know what? He did! The very moment I asked Him, it was like a thousand pounds was lifted off my shoulders. I slept like a baby that night and have never had that nightmare again; and that was before I was saved!
In 1989, my wife was threatening to leave me again because of my drinking. I was going on vacation with my drinking buddy Luther, and his family. I didn't invite my wife because she just cramped my style. Besides that, it was sort of a last minute deal for me. Luther invited me to go and I wasn't working at the time anyhow, so we got three or four cases of beer and took off for Wilmington, NC. That was on Friday evening. By Monday afternoon I was out of beer. Oh, I forgot to mention, my wife told me right before we left that if I was still drinking when we came back, she was leaving me for good! Like I'd done so many times before, I promised her I'd quit when I came back. Anyhow, since I was already out of beer, I thought maybe this would be a good time to see if I could actually quit, because I knew Barbara was serious about leaving me. Besides that, I figured I could always hit Luther up for some of his vodka if I wanted a drink too bad.
We were staying in a trailer that belonged to some friends of Luther. All weekend long I'd been playing guitar and singing for everybody while we all got high, but Monday night I decided to go to bed early; I wasn't having much fun anyway, being the only one there not drinking. I went into that little bedroom and I thought, I am not going to be able to do this on my own. How many times have I tried to quit on my own and failed miserably? So I decided I would pray and ask God to help me. I was tired of all the lies. I'd lied to myself, my family, my wife, my friends, and I'd lied to God. How many times had I said "God, if you'll just help me get over this one, I promise I'll straighten up and do right"? I was just tiredinside of all those lies. Like I said earlier, it was hard for me to swallow my manly pride and humble myself before God, but I did. I got down on my knees and cried like a baby and poured out my heart to God. I told Him how sorry I was for all the wrong things I'd done and asked His forgiveness. Then I told Him I knew I couldn't quit drinking by my own will-power, but that if He would just take the taste of alcohol away from me, I knew I could quit and stay quit by His will-power. Here's where my story gets kind of supernatural.
When I invited God into my life, it felt like He grabbed a handle on the side of my chest, pulled me open, stepped inside me and filled me with His presence. Immediately my tears stopped and a peace came over me like I'd never known in my life. His presence filled up all the empty parts of my body and soul, even parts I didn't know were empty. I remember thinking, this is what I've been looking for all my life! This is what I've been missing all these years! You'd think after that happening to me that I'd want to run outside and tell someone, wouldn't you? But I didn't. I got up off my knees and got in bed and slept sober for the first time in years.
The next morning, I wanted to tell someone what had happened to me, but I was afraid to tell Luther and the others. I was afraid they would make fun of me and wouldn't believe me, so I didn't tell anyone then, although later on I did tell Luther and his family when we were back in Charlotte. Even though I knew what had happened the night before was real, it was still hard to believe that I'd woke up without a hangover. In fact, about 10:00 that morning I was walking around the yard, wondering when the D.T.'s were going to hit, but it wasn't the D.T.'s that hit, it was God! His presence came all over me, on the outside this time, not on the inside ! It was as if He was saying, "I've cleansed you on the inside , now let me do the outside. It was as if warm honey was poured over my head and slowly covered my whole body, even to the soles of my feet! I don't remember much about the rest of that week, only that the Spirit of God was poured out on me the next day and again the day after that! Both days, it was exactly the same time of day, about 10:00 a.m. I do know that when I got back to Charlotte, my wife sensed a change in me, but didn't know whether to believe me or not. We went to see the pastor who had married us and he helped me understand what had happened to me. I was baptized two weeks later and publicly proclaimed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. That was in 1989 and I'm still proclaiming Him today.
Thanks for reading my story. I pray to God that it will be an encouragement and a blessing to you.
P.S. - - - - I started in 1989 and still do, praying every day: Thanking God for saving me, for keeping me sober and asking Him to be Lord of my life today and every day.
May God bless and keep you by His wonderful grace, as He does me,
Frank Basinger
Designed by PSALM 40 MINISTRIES 07 / 2008