Words from days gone by

The other day, I found a CD of a very special broadcast of my dad’s radio program.  Back in 2001 a generous listener – who actually wished to remain anonymous – gave money to the radio station requesting a broadcast that honored Jerry Bauer and his family.  What an amazing honor!  April 24th, 2001 was the day of this unique broadcast.  Both my mom and dad hosted the program; my brother Mark and I also had the chance to say a few words.  I confess that I shed several tears as I listened to this CD.  There were so many memorable moments in the broadcast that are worthy of being shared again in this blog.  But I wanted to share what I had to say that day.

“Hi, my name is Kevin Bauer.  I’d like to thank the anonymous listener for making this possible and providing this time for me to give my testimony.  To start off, the doctors injured me doing the birthing process when I was born.  In fact, I still have the spot on the top of my head that the doctors gave me.  Then the doctors told my parents months later that I had a disease called Infantile Spasms; I was having up to 200 seizures a day.  I still have the journal that my mom took on how many seizures I had with and without the medicine.

But when I was 10 months old, I was in my hospital crib and actually died for three minutes.  When God brought me back to this Earth I had no signs of having Infantile Spasms anymore.  I haven’t had a seizure since that day!  All glory and praise goes to God for me being the only one of thousands of people to ever be healed totally from the disease.

If that wasn’t enough, when I was 6 years old, I had what the doctors called HSP, which basically means that I had blood in my urine.  After 18 months, I was healed from that.  Most people who get HSP have to go on dialysis for the rest of their lives, a process that takes 20 to 25 hours per week.  Currently, at this chapter in my life I am 19 years old.  I’m working at a retail store called Lord and Taylor.

When I think about my life, without a doubt, the most important thing that I did was to give my life to the Lord at a Billy Graham crusade.  God has told me to talk with you about what Billy Graham talked about with us that night.  Unfortunately, we have to start with the bad news.  In fact, it’s really bad news; which is the fact that every single one of us is a sinner.  That’s what the Bible says in Romans 3:23: ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’  You may respond to that by asking yourself questions like, “So what?  What’s the big deal about sin?  Why does that affect me?”  The Bible gives us the answers.

 

The Bible says that all sinners stand condemned before God.  John 3:18 states, ‘He who believes in Him (Jesus Christ) is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son.’  Sin also separates us from God since He is perfect.  That’s what the Bible says in Isaiah 59:2: ‘But your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden His face from you.’  And Isaiah 59:12 says that our sins testify against us.

This problem of sin presents an extremely urgent need for a life-changing solution.  Sadly, however, the human response is typically just to try to make sure that our good works outweigh our bad works and just hope that we will somehow win God’s approval.  But God is too perfect and holy to say to Himself, “Well, that guy is a sinner, but since he’s just such a good person, I’ll just not worry about him.”

But there’s good news.  Christ’s solution for our sin was to perform the ultimate work of good on our behalf.  He died and paid the penalty of our sins on the cross, and resurrected in three days.  The Bible says that God made Him who knew no sin – Christ – to be sin for us (that’s in 2 Corinthians 5:21).  It also says ‘whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’  Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’  Each and every one of us now has a choice to make: accept or reject.  Accept God’s plan of salvation or reject it.  Which choice have you made?  Have you accepted Christ’s forgiveness or are you continuing to reject it?  There is no other solution.  I pray that you will live for the Lord now and forevermore.”

I want to conclude this blog today by sharing a paragraph that my dad wrote way back in 1971.  It’s amazing to me how these treasures from Dad’s life of faith continue to be discovered.  I didn’t know about these words until just a few days ago.  Ten years before I was born, my dad wrote these words:

“My friend, how long has it been since you talked with the Lord and found that He really cares about you?  I know that I’m nearer home than I was yesterday and so are you, so why not come to Him now.  God knows everything and He also leads to victory.  Since God heard my prayer, He is able to hear yours.  Jesus is coming soon, what a day that will be, when my Savior I shall see for they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.  So don’t be afraid, don’t turn Him away.  My God specializes in things thought impossible.  Come to Jesus now!”