I am amazed on a daily basis that the Lord would show such mercy to me in placing me in service to Him (1 Tim 1:12-14). I was raised in central Maine in a church that taught me some of the fundamentals of the Christian faith, but I was never radically confronted with the realities of faith in Christ alone, nor in surrendering to Jesus Christ as absolute Lord of everything. Therefore, I remained a religious hypocrite for several years. As a child, I was your average “church brat”.  I was raised in church, with my father being an elder and my mom the church pianist.  I went to youth group, Sunday school, and church, but my experience with the Lord was far short of being as vibrant as it should have been.  I do not believe my testimony in public school was particularly bright.  I did not show the transforming grace of Christ on a daily basis, even though I had been baptized to signify a new focus in life.  Even though I did not act like a committed Christian, I lived with a great deal of guilt for my actions and the Lord kept speaking to me through His Word.

However, a great change began to manifest itself when I attended Word of Life Bible Institute.  It was there that the Lord overcame me by His wonderful grace and gained control of my life.  I stopped living the game of “churchianity” once I gained a love for the Word of God, His people, and obedience to holiness.

I later transferred to Pensacola Christian College where the Lord showed me beyond a doubt that He desired for me to serve Him full-time in the ministry to preach and teach His Absolute Truth.

As far as my actual salvation experience is concerned, I do not remember a specific date that I saw my desperate condition with no way to save myself. I made a childhood profession of faith and would renew my passion for Christ at summer camp.

I am all-to-well acquainted with the wretchedness of my own sin. I seek to be quick to repent and obey all that the Lord reveals to me in His Holy Word. As I examine the fruit of regeneration spoken of in the multitude of Scripture passages, what Edwards referred to as “religious affection”, I have no doubt that the Spirit of God regenerated me, even though I do not know the date. Though I do not remember a date, I can observe that there was a time that I repented of my sin and embraced the Lord Jesus as my only way of salvation.  Yes, there have been times that I called out to Him in faith to save me, but my assurance comes by the difference in my life that attests to me being a new creature in Christ.  As the apostle James explains, the life of repentance I lead shows that the profession I made is genuine.

Yet, God graciously granted me the gifts of faith and repentance and gave me life in Jesus Christ.

After granting me a love for His Word and His people in Bible college, I entered the ministry, afforded the privilege of proclaiming His living and active Word. After nearly a dozen years I was overwhelmed by the necessity for further training on how to properly exegete the meaning from the text of Scripture, knowing that I would give an account one day for what I have taught as “thus saith the Lord.” It was when I was preaching through James that I was scared of my accountability to the truth when I arrived atJames 3:1 “stop being so many teachers, brethren, knowing that we will incur a stricter judgment.” I remember listening to a Master-Bible teacher, John MacArthur, and thinking, “Why is this church paying me to teach them, we should just invest in a better sound system and listen to him proclaim the truth on the Lord’s day.”

Then I packed up my wife and three children and moved to southern California to attend the Master’s Seminary. I’ve now had the privilege of graduating with my doctorate in expository preaching (talk about the Lord’s sense of humor in using the dullest knife in the drawer & His infinite wisdom of using the weak things like myself to proclaim His excellencies…1 Corinthians 1).

I currently have the amazing privilege of being married to my sweetheart, Cindy, raising my 7 children, and shepherding God’s people in the Word, proclaiming Christ until they all are complete in Christ (Col 1:28-29). If I can be of any service to you in the Word, please visit www.biblicalexpositor.org. To God alone be all the glory!

Parker W. Reardon, II

• A graduate of Word of Life Bible Institute, Pensacola Christian College, and The Master’s Seminary
• A husband of Cynthia (Richeson) Reardon
• A father to Adrianne, Will, Pierce, Chandler, Quintin, Connor, & Dayna
• A practitioner of expository preaching and biblical counseling
• A simple slave of the Lord Jesus Christ