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I’d been a “Christian” for as
long as I could remember.
Raised in the Baptist traditions of my
mothers family with all the religious
traditions, guilt laced
communions, and “Pastor's”
being extra “friendly” to my 6’ tall, blonde
haired, blue eyed, big breasted mother, I can’t tell
you how many times I took the altar call. It
wasn’t until I had visited my grandmothers’
church several times in a short period that
my enthusiasm for all the “Born Again”
attention was extinguished by
a Sunday School teacher that basically said
"Knock it off, one alter call is
Enough!"
Fast forwarding to the summer of 1979,
only weeks away from my 19th birthday, I was
really searching hard to find God.
The message coming from "Mainstream
Christianity" was not adding up for me,
I was becoming more skeptical by the day,
but holding on in prayer for God to
show me the way.
Fortunately for me, my grandmother's sister,
(My Great Aunt Lucille) had married a
preacher. His name was Dr. Paul Maddox.
Having been the Chief Of Chaplin's of the
European theater in WWII , he was the first
into every German city that was freshly
captured, and he
amassed a great collection of the “Spoils of
War” along the way. Sometime after the war he became a
part of Billy Graham’s inner circle during
the hay days of revival. One day out of the
blue uncle Paul paid me a visit.
From my
youngest days, Uncle Paul called me the
“Great One”, I never knew why, but this
day was no different. Except now I was a
young man.
That day my Uncle Paul changed my life in
way so profound, I can only now weep in
remembrance. Paul told me “Great One, if you
really want to learn about God, you must
listen to a man named
Dr. Gene Scott.”
I had no idea who Dr. Scott was. (And I wondered
why Uncle Paul didn’t tell me to listen to Billy
Graham?) The day would not end without an
introduction.
In those days my older brother had a
landscaping company I was working for during
the summer. After leaving Uncle
Paul I headed for the equipment yard to
rent a small bulldozer called a “Bobcat”
needed for the work that day. I was standing
in the rental office and there was a small black
and white television on top of a tall file
cabinet. The TV was on, and a man's head
filled the frame. The volume was off. I
asked the rental agent what he was watching
and he told me it was
Dr. Gene Scott!! I was stunned. I spent 20
minutes talking about the Dr. Scott guy. The
agent ( his name was Paul too!) told me I
could listen to him live that night on the
radio dial 99.5 FM. Of course I was glued to
the radio that night, but Doc didn’t show.
He was out of town but sent his mother,
"Mom
Scott" to do
the evenings live show.
She gave the great testimony
about her and
Pop Scott’s
(Doc's father and a minister),
life with the young Gene Scott. She told the whole
story of how they raised up a man to teach
the Last Generations how to be Christians!
That’s the short story of how I became a
student of Dr. Gene Scott. Years later I got the
chance to tell Doc about my Uncle Paul, and
to check a fact or two. Doc confirmed that
he had met my Uncle Paul in the days when
the Melody Land church in Anaheim came under
attack. My Uncle Paul, Ralph Wilkerson and
Dr. Scott worked together to successfully
save that old church. The following Sunday
Doc memorialized my
story about Uncle Paul by weaving it into his sermon. I guess
you could call it a full circle.
I was with Doc for nearly the entire 30
years he was pastor of Faith Center. I did a
4+ year pastors internship with him from
1984-1989 and continued in his employ or as
a volunteer then and nearly 3 years after
his death and home-going. I loved him as a
father, admired him as a man's man, and I'm
proud to call him my Mentor and Pastor. I
miss him very much, but eternity and the
great reunion will come soon enough. Until
then, there's still work to do, wars to be fought
and eternal rewards to be earned.
Thanks Doc for your faith and courage to
train by example. Thank you for your sheer determination
to never let us down.
You never did!
- Addison B. Bachman
“The Sword of the Lord and of Gene!!!”
For more
information about Dr. Gene Scott click:
God's
Angry Man
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