A God - Changed Life

By Mrs. Barbara McCain

Some of the alcoholics that had come to the rescue mission that night may have wondered what the young man about to preach could possibly say to them. After all, he was obviously different than they; how could he understand? And different he certainly was: well dressed, clean cut, tan, and healthy looking. Then there was the rumor, maybe whispered around, that he was a cop - a deputy sheriff, and that bulge under his coat was a Revolver. What right did he have to say he could understand and have an answer to their needs? But when he started to speak, he began with a story many knew very well.  His was a story similar to many of their own, how a man can turn his back on all that is good for the sake of sin and alcohol.  After several minutes they came to realize that it was the young man’s own story and the only reason he did not sit on their side of the pulpit was that God had intervened, Jesus had changed his life.

He told the story in the short, simple, direct way that was his custom after six years of writing police reports. The full story is of a man with everything to live for, who turned his back on God, his wife, and his family.  He had seen saved at age fifteen, been a high school athlete, married his high school sweetheart, fathered two beautiful sons, and followed his chosen career as a peace officer, all by the age of twenty-two.  A man with a bright future, some may have said.  And yet there was something missing. Though saved as a teenager, he had never developed that deep reliance on God, an intimate knowledge of His word, or turned his total life over to the Lord.  Though on the surface he had seemed to be a model Christian: a Sunday school teacher, youth leader, soul winner, in his own life he had never totally yielded to the Lord's strength, but had, for the most part, gone it on his own.  So when the temptations came, there was not that deep strength in the Lord to resist.  And the temptations did come - quickly and strongly.  At first, he had withstood the teasing of the other deputies as they drank after work: names such as "The Kid," "The Milk Kid," "Preacher," and it seemed almost a compliment.  But after awhile it seemed the only way to be accepted was to drink with his friends, go out with them, and not mention Christ, who might be an embarrassment to all concerned.  The few drinks led to many and now, in retrospect, it is very easy to assume he could have become a full fledged alcoholic.

After three years of such life his personality suffered.  While he had once desired to work with youth as a juvenile officer for Christ; now he was one of the hardest, toughest cops at the station, known as the most "gung ho" deputy.  But the real change was in his relationships with Christ and his family.  He changed from a regular church attender, supportive of all causes of Christ, to one who shunned the church and ridiculed his wife’s talks about the Lord.  From a loving, gentle husband, he became cold, withdrawn, cruel, until he was able to date others while his own wife was critically ill in the hospital, never visiting her for two months.  When the doctors asked him to comfort his wife, say he loved her, he refused, just waiting until she would die or recover sufficiently to proceed with a divorce.  He went from proud, loving father, to an unpredictable one, leaving his own two sons, hardly five and three years of age, some days to wander the streets and care for themselves.  At the same time he would stay out to avoid the feelings of guilt that came when he saw them.  But then God started to work on his heart, and the work was one of convicting power.  Truly though he had turned his back on God, God had never left him and now was ready to lead him back where he belonged.

The full cycle of return took six months.  It started when he went to the hospital to urge the doctors to find the cause of his wife’s illness and treat it: after some urging from his wife, in laws and this new felt inner urging from the Lord.  When he viewed her there, down to seventy pounds, he suddenly began to realize he had almost lost many of the things that had been formerly so precious to him, the things God had given him: wife, family, job.  Days afterwards, he was able to send his wife flowers for the first time with a note saying simply "I love you," three words he would have been unwilling and unable to say a week earlier. God had indeed begun His loving work in this young man's heart. What had taken three and a half years of Satan's scheming, was slowly and painfully, at times, reversed.  He felt he could handle even these problems on his own, without God's help.  Being a father and husband again, seemed easy at first, but there were still the sinful desires, the lack of total communication. Nevertheless, great strides were made- as God was at work, the wife relied on the Lord for help, and many unseen prayer warriors prayed.  But the alcohol was not so easily dismissed, it sought to regain its ground until only three months later, two times in a row, he had to be carried home senseless after drinking bouts.  He was finally at his own low point, it was becoming obvious he could not solve all his problems on his own, though he tried.  God was bringing him to the point where God's full work of renewal could be worked.

After moving to a new community, a sensitive, godly pastor learned of the young man, now 25+ years of age, and of his talent for singing.  Taking a step of faith, the pastor told the young man he was on the program to sing Sunday night at church.  It was at this church that several of the station deputies had recently been saved.  By this time enough had been changed, his marriage, his drinking almost in control, that the man felt he could go back to church, especially if other deputies were expecting him, but not ready to admit he needed to turn his life over to God, to beg for forgiveness and have a complete spiritual rededication.  But when he came to the pulpit that night to sing "It Took A Miracle," a burden lay so heavily on him that he could not sing, until in total humility he publicly confessed his sin and rededicated his life in front of that entire congregation. It was an emotional event. I know because I was there, and I lived through it all.  That deputy sheriff is my husband, Dennis McCain.  I felt the tears too deep for crying as he sang that song having declared that it would take a miracle to change him but he knew God alone could perform it.  He also declared that while he had felt he had been a strong tough man, doing it on his own, all he had was practically lose all that was of any importance in his life.  I experienced deep thanksgiving as I witnessed that public answer to five years of praying.  I was also there three months later when God called Dennis to full time service, by his side when he went forward in answer to a call for mission service, and very proud when in May 1975 he graduated from Los Angeles Baptist College.  But most importantly, I have been there to see God change a man.  If I were to say God restored Dennis as a husband and a father, that would not be the complete truth.  In actuality, God gave us more than our prayers - a new creation in Christ Jesus, a more loving husband, father and follower of Jesus than we had dared to pray for or had ever seen before. That is why the night he spoke in the mission he could seem so different.  Not one man could have guessed that the story of the sinful lover of alcohol and hater of the things of God was the speaker’s former self.  We can both say praise to God for His loving grace that can reach down and give us a new life in Christ Jesus.

Life and health was totally restored.  And, praise the Lord, Dennis has never touched a drink since his rededication.  Now he drinks of the deeper refreshing of God.