Hi. I'm Ron Baker Jr.
I can sum up my whole brief witness in one word. Grace.
The grace He showed me when I was 16, steadying the truck as my
drunken friends and I stood in the back, urinating over the tailgate while travelling at seventy MPH down the highway.
The grace He showed me when I was 18, lost, scared, alone &
confused, and considered jumping off the sixth floor of my college dorm.
He sent someone to stop me before I even cared who He was.
The grace He showed me at 21, as I followed the Grateful Dead
around the country. I can think back to so many dangerous, drug-filled
instances, where I would surely have died, if not for His grace.
The grace that brought a young woman named Rebecca into my life 8
years ago, who was (and still is) so much more than I deserve, and who
God used to quietly lead me toward the door of the kingdom without
either of us knowing it.
The grace that spoke a whisper into my ear at 3 AM on May 17th,
1995 saying, "let go of the wheel", as my BMW careened off the road
while I was driving home plastered from my own bachelor party. Had I not
listened, and let go of the wheel I can say with certainty, that I would
be in hell right now because the eighty foot pine tree that took the
mirror off the side of my car at sixty MPH would have been buried right
in the center of the hood.
The grace that held our marriage together in 1995 - 96 as I stayed
out until two or three in the morning drinking, while my new bride sat
home weeping.
The grace that led her, and eventually me to Pine Knolls Alliance
church, where several people who cared more about me than I did
cornered me into attending a Promise Keepers conference in Syracuse in
the summer of 1996.
The grace that broke me at that conference, and brought me weeping
to my knees at the front of the Carrier Dome. There were 40,000 men at
that conference, but for those few minutes it was just me & Jesus and He
showed me His love, and I saw just how undeserving I was.
The grace that brought me into ministry through music, allowing me
to share with you, what He has done for me and defined my purpose in
this place, until the Lord calls me Home.
The grace that brought me friends like Steve and Alisa.
The grace that created Impact.
...But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power
is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly
about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9
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