My Biography

To live is Christ! My life verse is Psalm 85:6, "Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee." 

When Dad decided to move us back to California, my grandmother gave me a gift. It was a large print New Testament. She handed it to me, but when I reached up to receive it, she held it tight. I looked up at her, and with deep earnestness and passion she said, "Jerry, this is the word of God!" My grandmother was a prayer warrior! Many times I would hear her praying as I played outside the kitchen window waiting for the morning biscuits to be ready. I heard her praying for my uncles, for my mother and father, and for me. Often I would come into the house, and stop at the threshold of the kitchen and wait quietly while she was kneeling at a kitchen chair pouring her heart out to God for her family, and for me. So, when grandma gave me that New Testament, and spoke so slomenly telling me it was God's Word, her words struck me with force. I knew that I had in my hands a great treasure, and I kept it. But I never read it.

In Junior High I began playing guitar. In High School I joined a band. Satan made a run at my life, and I got involved in some things that would have destroyed me if God had not by His grace saved me. At the same time I was dabling in the usual foolish sins of youth, but God was stirring in my heart. I enjoyed writing, and began a  work I titled An Essay on God. My English teacher took an interest in this and encouraged me to work on that project by giving me a hall pass I could use to excuse myself from any class to work on my essay in the typing room. I confess that I did sometimes abuse that privilege, but I mostly used it to explore my thoughts on God. Becoming increasingly depressed from the emptiness of my life, I decided one night to find that Bible my grandmother had given me. I began reading the first book. It was only the New Testament, so the first book was Matthew. After reading Matthew, I enjoyed it so well, I decided to read it again. And again; and again.

As I read the Gospel of Matthew, I was enamored of Jesus. It was the sixties, and many of the things He taught resonated with certain ideals that stirred my generation. When I came to the account of Jesus' crucifixion, I would become angry, not only at the cruelty of those who abused Him, but at Him too. It seemed the story was all wrong! Jesus was so powerful He could walk on water, raise the dead, and heal all manner of disease, and even cast out devils—why was He letting them treat Him like this. It seemed wrong! More than once I tossed the Bible down thinking, this is ridiculous, determined to read no more of it. But, night after night, I found myself drawn to the New Testament grandma had given me. 

An older guy joined our band. I can't even remember his name right now. But he was a very talented singer. We were all very surprised he took an interest in us, and began to arrange gigs (performing jobs) and promised to get us on a program called American Bandstand. We were practicing very hard to prepare for this opportunity. One day, he asked to meet me at one of our favorite after practice places, Winchel's donuts in Artesia, near the High School. He told me he thought he and I should break away from the band and join another group. He flattered me, and I was amazed at what he was saying—that we would be Rock Stars together. It was everything I had dreamed of since the first day I began learning how to play the guitar. Then he invited me to a meeting where he said we would get the power to become Rock Stars. I agreed to go! He took me to his car, opened the trunk, picked up what looked like a scroll, untied it, and rolled it open. I did not know what I was looking at then, but now I know it was a pig skin and a pentagram was inscribed on it with odd looking symbols at the points of the inverted star.

For reasons I would not be able to explain until several years later, a sense of dread came over me. Dread, and revulsion! I looked at him and without thinking it through at all, I said, "I don't want anything to do with you." And I walked away. As I walked down the sidewalk along Norwalk, Blvd. I realized I was walking away from the opportunity I had dreamed of since Junior High School. I stopped, and thought, "what am I doing?" But when I turned around to go back, that same strange sense of forboding, and revulsion overcame me. So I turned again and alternately ran and walked home. 

A few months went by, and almost every night I would spend time reading through the Gospel of Matthew. It was coming up on Christmas break, and my Aunt Betty and Uncle Carl, who took a kindly interest in me, came to visit. Aunt Betty asked me to stay with them for Chrstmas break, but I explained I had a gig to prepare for and so thanked her but declined the offer. I was in our garage at the time practicing and of course the music I was playing was very loud. She returned after a while, and I only knew someone was banging on the garage door because I could see the dust clouding up around it. When I opened the door, there was my Aunt Betty again, only this time she was crying, and she begged me to reconsider. I said I would come if she allowed me to have a few hours every day to practice. She agreed.

Aunt Betty and Uncle Carl were members of Central Baptist Church in Bell Gardens, CA. I attended church with them while I was visiting for Christmas break. I met a girl there named Cindy; she was the preacher's daughter, and we hit it off. I began returning to Bell Gardens every weekend to see Cindy, and to attend church with the family. Sunday after Sunday, I heard the Gospel with interest, and began to think I needed to make a change in my life. One holiday I was there on a Wednesday night, when a guest evangelist came to preach. He introduced his message with a Scripture from the Gospel of Matthew. Showing off, I said to Cindy, "I know this book." Throughout the message, he used only Scriptures from Matthew, and every time he cited a reference, I quoted it, trying to impress my girlfriend. But suddenly it all became very serious. He started talking about Jesus being crucified, and said he was going to explain why Jesus allowed sinners to treat Him so cruelly when He had the power to destroy them easily. I became fixated on his message and listened very intently. It was an amazing moment for me to suddenly understand that the reason Jesus allowed Himself to be so horribly mistreated was that He was dying for the sins of mankind—for me, for my sin! At the end of the message, I stepped forward, knelt at the red-carpeted altar of the Central Baptist Church and received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. The eye of God difussed the quickening ray into my soul on that Wednesday night in December of 1968 at a small Baptist church in Bell Gardens, CA. I was baptized the following Sunday. 

A short time later God called me to preach; but I knew Cindy did not want to be a pastor's wife, so I did not say anything to anyone about it. Besides, I figured I was no one to be standing behind a pulpit preaching to others. It turned out Cindy and I were not to be married after all. I joined the army, and when discharged (honorably), I returned to Central Baptist Church then led by Pastor Larry Hamblen. Shortly therafter, I declared my call to preach and surrendered under his ministry. He taught me so much, and helped me develop as a preacher and student of the Scripture. I matriculated into Bible College, met Becky, received a call to pastor my home church, got married, and soon I was off and away moving forward fulfilling my call. 

I thought often of my dear grandmother. She was getting up in years, and I wanted to see her before she went to Heaven. Becky and I travelled to Florida to spend a week with Grandma Nail.

One day during our visit, we were driving together to meet one of my many kin in that area, and Grandma said, "Jerry, God told me you would be a preacher." That startled me. She had never mentioned it before. I asked her to tell me about that. She said "it was many years ago, back when you were a teenager." I was intrigued. She said she was having trouble sleeping one night, and I remember my Grandmother always said when she could not sleep, she believes it is because God was calling her to spend time praying. She told me as she prayed my name kept coming to her mind. She said she began praying for me, and suddenly a darkness came over her, and great dread and fear took hold on her so she thought I was in trouble. She prayed earnestly, all night long. She said that as day broke, she was filled with peace. And she said, "right then, I knew God was going to call you to preach." It occurred to me she might have been praying the night before I was invited by the Devil to join him. She did not remember the date but as best we could put it together, it lined up closely enough to when I was invited to a meeting with the Devil that I'm convinced God moved my grandmother to pray for me and by God's grace I was delivered from certain destruction.

Prayer and fasting became a passion of mine when as a young Christian I read that Jesus thought we would fast and pray during His absence (Mark 2:20). I realized I had not fasted up to that time, and I was determined to learn all I could about it and begin practicing it right away. God has guided me by His Spirit into His word and given me many blessed insights into the importance and power of prayer and fasting.

I enrolled in Liberty University to earn a Masters degree (Magna Cum Laud). While pastoring, and raising our son, Zachary, I enrolled in Bethany Divinity College and Seminary to earn the Doctor of Theological Studies degree (Summa Cum). My thesis for that doctorate was a sort of synthesis of Reformed and Dispensational eschatology which became the theological basis for this book: God's War: Why Christians Should Rule the World.

Teaching for my alma mater, and later as a guest professor at West Coast Baptist College, and Pacific Baptist College, and working with Missionary Ron Reasoner to establish the Eurasia Baptist College, headquarted in Moscow, afforded me great opportunities to communicate God's Word through writing curricula and teaching students who were serious about studying the Bible.

Among my greatest pleasures in ministry have been pastoring a group of Gypsies in South Gate, CA, the Wells Road Baptist Church in Ventura, CA, and for the past 26 years,  the Lighthouse Baptist Church in Santa Maria, CA., and working with the beloved prayer evangelist, Dr. Benny Beckum and The Intercessor Ministries. 

To relax, I spend time with my Dove (a nicname for my wife, Rebecca), paint, play guitar, and annoy our Pug (One-Eyed Willie) when practicing the Sax.