My testimony by Steve Fleshman
 My testimony can best be summed up as a relationship Vs- a religion (I was religious FOR God but now I have a relationship WITH God).
I don't have a catastrophic testimony that people would maybe think was amazing, but none the less it is one that was life changing for me.
I grew up going to Church; mom took us 3 boys, but there wasn't actually a preacher, just a weekly Sunday School. I was baptized at age 13 with my older brother. I remember there was a revival (guest speaker) at our church one week and we just planned all week that we would be baptized at the end of the week. I don't remember asking Jesus into my heart, we were just taught that you had to be baptized to go to heaven and I wanted to go.
Since, there was no preacher in our church of » 50; during my late teen years, the 2 elders asked a couple of us boys to study a topic and teach to the church (once per month). I ended up doing this for nearly 12 years. What I want to tell you, and I am very much ashamed of, is that I did not know the Lord as my personal saviour, while speaking from that pulpit.
In 1983 (one year after marriage), my wife and I went out on our own farming and endured a drought that broke us financially. We farmed with my dad again until 1985, when my sister-in-law got us some applications for some of the larger companies in KC. Marion / Quintiles called me for an interview and I got the job. I talked to the HR rep. after having been hired for several months, and she said that she never would have called if she had known that I lived 3 hours away, in Unionville, MO (she thought it was a suburb of KC), I knew even then that God had given me this job!
There was a chain of events that led up to my salvation in 1992. I continued to work myself ragged to make ends meet, working two jobs for about a year. After that I was working 50 hours per week on the job at Marion / Quintiles + going to school four nights per week. I was also preaching once a month still, and in the winter I had a snow removal service with my 4x4 pickup. We had just bought our home in Raymore and on moving day we were told that the deal fell through on the home we were moving out of. So on top of everything we made double house payments for 3 months (financial trouble again). It was during that time that I bottomed out, even though on the outside everything looked OK.
It was a miserable life to proclaim to be a Christian without knowing Jesus; I could not enjoy sin because I knew it was wrong and yet I didn't have the peace that passeth all understanding. One Friday night (March 13, 1992) we were watching the movie "Point Break" (very fitting since I was at the breaking point). The kids spilled something and I got mad and sent them upstairs, my mother called and we got into a fight and I hung up on her, my wife and I then got into a fight too and I decided to go up and sleep in the other room.
I remember lying there with all of these thoughts and many other things in my life flashing before my eyes. If I didn't know Jesus; how would my family be saved? If I didn't know Jesus what was all of my labor for? If I didn't know Jesus every aspect of my life was vain. I had reached a point in my life that above anything, and before I could do anything I had to have Jesus. I remember crying out to God that if there was anything to this thing called religion that I had to know it tonight. Fortunately, I knew someone who I worked with at Marion / Quintiles who not only professed to be a Christian but also walked like he knew the Lord. I got a hold of him (Royal Schlagenbusch) that night and in the course of telling him all of my troubles, he asked me the question that I needed to be asked "Steve, do you know Jesus Christ as you personal Saviour?" I responded, "I don't think so". He said you had better come over tonight and make sure. I went to his house and we went through scriptures that I had seen all of my life, but for the first time, my eyes of understanding were open. When we got to Romans 10:9-10 at about 2:00am on March 14, 1992 I cried out and asked Jesus to come into my heart and save me with nothing holding back; not my job, money, father, mother, wife, children, family, carnality, pride, unbelief, good works, etc.
I know that Jesus saved me that night and my life has never been the same. I have never really gotten over being saved and hope I never do. I know from that time on, I am saved, not because of some "experience" but because the Bible said so. Romans 10:13 says, " Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved ", and I did that nothing holding back and you know what, he came in just like he said he would. I've had to re-learn many false teachings in my life and I have a long way to go. But my life has turned 180 ° and the Lord Jesus Christ is in control, I now serve God because I am saved rather than a means of trying to be saved. My marriage got put back in line with God, my children have since both gotten saved, and our other house sold.
I hope my story has been relevant to you. Although I lead a good life, I never smoked or drank or chased women. Steve was a "good boy" by the world's standards, but I was lost. I served God out of obligation, I couldn't enjoy sinning because my conscience told me that it was wrong, but I also didn't know the peace of God, which passeth all understanding (Philippians 4:7) because I didn't have Jesus in my heart. It was miserable life trying to walk the fence. There was a void that only Jesus Christ could fill and He did, I now have a relationship with my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
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