Almost overnight, John saw his father change from a drunken

John came from a poor family. He grew up pumping water, taking baths in an old iron washtub. In the dead of winter, freezing wind blew through the cracks in the outhouse. Rats regularly visited the two-room shack he lived in.

John did not have a stable home environment. One day John's father stood at the top of the stairs, threatening to blow his brains out with his deer rifle because John's mother was going to leave him for another man. His wife succeeded in talking him out of killing himself, but she left him anyway. John's father became depressed and withdrawn after that. John coped by drowning the gloom with alcohol and drugs. Then an unexpected event happened. John's father gave his heart to Christ, and became a transformed person. Almost overnight, John saw his father change from a drunken "outlaw" to a born again creation of God. Yet John was not impressed nor did he want any part of it. However, night after night, the prayers of John's father could be heard in the bedroom below "Lord - get John saved."

In the room above, John moved further into chemical oblivion. Spiritual darkness was drawing him. For no explainable reason, he painted his room totally black, permanently drew the window shades, and lit only candles on the floor for light. Drugs, alcohol, strobe lights and rock music was all he lived for. Being a rock star was his sole ambition in life.

Certainly John did not want to hear his father's advice. "Those drugs you are taking are a one-way ticket to hell. You are giving place to demonic spirits. You are frying your brain. You need to let Jesus Christ have control of your life, son, before it's too late." Yet John was not terribly interested. Evil powers indeed had hold of him, yet John was blinded to the fact.

John's father began to ask every Christian he came in contact with, "Will you pray for my son, John? Pray that God will get him saved." Prayers of untold numbers were going forth to God, shaking the very throne of the devil.

John became more involved in demonic activity without realizing it. On one particular occasion, a friend of his was reading a book on sorcery while they were both spaced out on drugs, and John's friend became demonically possessed. Speaking in a completely different voice and with completely different mannerisms, his friend had unknowingly given himself to fallen spirit beings. Scared as John was, he still did not turn from the road to hell he was on, Not until the fateful night in the wilderness swamp. In his own words:

I was so high that night. I had taken a mixture of drugs, enough to kill three or four people. I was by some railroad tracks, and a strange looking dog walked up to me from out of nowhere. I started walking with the dog, and at about midnight, for no particular reason, the dog and I walked into the wilderness swamp. It was so bizarre - my brain was so fried - I literally got down on my hands and knees and began to act like the dog I was with. It was while I was on all fours, walking and trying to run like this dog I was with, that I started hearing these words inside my head: ETERNAL DAMNATION! ETERNAL DAMNATION! Over and over I heard them, like a stuck record. The words wouldn't go away and frantically I finally stood up and took off running out of the swamp toward home, which were miles away. Once I got home, I couldn't sleep, because the words kept going around and around in my head and wouldn't stop. ETERNAL DAMNATION. The following morning, I said to my Dad: "Dad - take me to a preacher. I want to get right with the Lord."

John did in fact get right with the Lord. And God miraculously delivered him of his addictions and ungodly habits, and within a few months, he was preaching the gospel in the streets of his neighborhood. A year and a half later, God called him into the ministry full-time, and he became a traveling evangelist.

Today, John Musser is founder and director of GOSPEL REVIVAL MINISTRIES, a multi-faceted evangelical ministry. The closest part of this ministry to John's heart is A.I.M. (Associated International Ministries - a strategic missions program targeted to nationals around the world). Christians around the world called to be teachers and church planters write GOSPEL REVIVAL MINISTRIES, requesting the most basic materials (such as bibles and study helps), to help disciple Christians in their own countries. John and his wife, Teresa, along with the help of volunteers, are giving joyfully of themselves to help keep up with the unbelievable demand for Christian literature in parts of the world where God is mightily pouring out His Spirit (where Christian literature is impossible to get in some places).

To all this, someone might say, "So what? Big deal! Who cares? Has Christianity made him rich? Has it made him famous? What good is it, if it doesn't make you rich or famous?

Well, if you were to ask John, I think he would tell you that Christianity HAS made him rich and famous. Rich, in that he is rich toward the things of God. The riches John has is eternal, not temporal. Famous, yes, in that John Musser is known in heaven by God. His name is recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life. Yet in this life, no - he's not famous. He doesn't care to be. He just wants to be a servant of God, helping build God's Kingdom in the hearts and lives of other people who are headed on the same road to hell he once was headed on.