I was born in 1966 to Eric and Carolyn Frye in Andalusia, Alabama. In 1968 my father accepted a preaching position with a Southern Baptist church in New Mexico and we moved to the west. My father and mother several years later, having moved us to Arizona to serve as pastor/missionaries on the Navajo Indian Reservation, raised my brother, Mitchell, and I to respect and love God. During our time in Arizona a very close friend of mine by the name of Perry Edwards had accepted Christ and shared his testimony with me. Through early experiences with my parents’ belief in Christ and my friend’s acceptance of Him, I came to realize that I needed Christ in my life. In 1973 at the age seven I accepted Christ Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I have never known a time that I was not aware of Jesus’ love for me, and attribute this primarily to my father’s and mother’s unconditional Christ-like love for me and those around me.
As I continued to grow older, stories of Jesus and great biblical figures of repute abounded in our home, Sunday school, and worship services. There was never a lack of spiritual devotion demonstrated to my brother and me by our father and mother. Their example as faithful Christians paved the way for the Holy Spirit to impress upon me the need for Christ to work through me as a faithful follower.
As I matured toward adulthood, I began to realize that God had a great work for me to do. But, the prospect of service in and for Christ was frightening, so I began to rebel against God in everything I had been raised to believe and respect. I started down a path that avoided thinking about my potential in Christ.
In my young adult years I began to physically avoid church participation and I fell away from walking with Christ with any consistency. The study of God’s word and prayer became less frequent and eventually disappeared altogether. I saw the world through the eyes of one who desired material riches. But, I could never bring my desire for wealth and the action that it required together to produce any kind of positive results.
I wandered aimlessly in my spiritual life for several years, but God was working even though I refused to listen and heed His desires for me. During this long period of uncertainty, I married my wife Rhonda, had three children and moved my church membership from one Salt Lake City church to another one. As time progressed and my children began to grow I realized that my family needed the influence of God and Christ Jesus in their lives and we as family began to attend church regularly. During this time a great thing happened. My daughter accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior.
With this miraculous event I began to look upon my spiritual life in a new way. God opened my eyes to a need for study and devotion in His word. As these studies and devotions progressed I became reacquainted with God. My ears and eyes came open to Him again and a renewed life in prayer began. This went on for several years.
In 2005 and 2006 God did some more miraculous things in my life that again changed the way I viewed Him, Christ, myself, and others. First, I was led to intensely seek the character of Christ Jesus in the Bible. The Holy Spirit began to make Himself known as I made my way through several self-studies that revealed to me what Christ experienced while He ministered on earth; How He treated His disciples and those around Him, His experience in death and His resurrection were prominent in my study. I found an insatiable appetite for God’s word that to this day has not been satisfied.
Second, I began to feel God calling me again to serve. I wasn’t sure in what way I would serve, but the call was there and I knew that I must begin fervently seeking God’s will for my life. Although prayer had been present in my study of God’s word my focus changed and I began to actively seek His will fully.
Third, I was impressed to seek out the spiritual gifts that God had so graciously provided to me. Through the counsel of my pastor at the time, Dr. Roger Russell, my father and mother, my family, friends, and some tools that assist people in identifying spiritual gifts, I discovered that God had placed in me the gift of exhortation. I began, and continue today, a study on those biblical figures that God had given this gift, so that I would grow in my understanding of God’s direction for me in ministry.
Fourth, and again fantastic, my wife and my two sons were led to Christ. For the first time in my wife’s and my marriage our family became a cohesive spiritual team with Christ Jesus as our coach, mentor, friend, and head. As we came together spiritually my calling became clearer. I was to preach the living Christ Jesus to the lost; churched and unchurched alike. The support from my family in my calling to serve has been like nothing I could have imagined in our early family life. God revealed Himself to me as a God of grace, graciousness, and perfect timing.
God has quashed any doubt about His abilities and made Himself clearly known to me through the miracles He has performed in and around my life. His only begotten Son sacrificed Himself for me on the cross and rose again to live eternally as my advocate at the right hand of God the Father. Jesus’ blood on the cross has cleansed my sins, He lives today, and I have eternal life with Him, because He died for me. I know and accepted Him as my Lord and Savior.
Where I wandered without direction, I now have an eternal purpose and certainty in my life with a direction that fully serves God. It excites me to think about those I might witness to who will discover what I have about Christ Jesus and the gracious God we call Father. God has and will continue to use me for His purposes and my prayer is that He will impress upon you His desires for you in your life.