Thank you Jesus
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Corby Eisbacher. I am here today because of the grace and mercy the Lord has shown me and continues to show me on a daily basis. I was raised in a very structured, "religious" home. I went to church every Sunday. I prayed all the right prayers and was part of a kids class yet I still felt empty inside and didn't know why. I thought there must be something wrong with me or I was just going crazy, not knowing why I felt so lost. So empty.
In 1989, I graduated high school and attended Barton College on an Art scholarship. A group of strong Christian believers had befriended me and invited me to attend their Bible studies. I remember wondering how every one of them could be truly in love with Jesus, like he was a real person. As I attended more of these bible studies and absorbed more of God’s word, I understood where these doubts about my faith were coming from. I was missing a personal relationship with Jesus.Finally, all these years of doubt made sense to me and I felt like a burden had been lifted.
At the end of one of our bible studies a friend and fellow art major from Cyprus, whose name was Maria invited me to revival Sunday morning at the non-denominational church she attended. I remember how friendly and joyful everyone was before worship had even begun, but once it did things got crazy. After 15 minutes of singing the Pastor stopped and said, “lock the doors because the Holy Spirit is in this place and we’re not letting him out!” (They did lock the doors and I was scared!) Oh, I forgot to mention the person leading revival was Grady Lemond Wilson who played Lamont from Sanford & Son. I thought I must be dreaming this and it couldn’t get any weirder, but it did!
Once worship resumed, which lasted for at least an hour, people began to jump like rabbits and yell and run around the church. I remember I started laughing so hard I was crying and members were coming up to me saying “let it out..it’s the Holy Spirit” and I remember thinking…”no it’s not, it’s funny”. The service lasted 3 hours and all I could think was let me out. After saying to myself I wasn’t going back, I ended up at worship every night...and on the final night I gave my life to Christ.
I remember coming home when I transferred to UNC-G so fired up sharing what God had done in my life, but it seemed like no one cared or wanted to hear. I started attending a local Baptist Church with a friend, quit reading the Bible as much because I didn’t have a study group to go to or a lot of Christian friends to hang around. (Not that I made any effort in either of these areas) My faith became Luke warm and then non-existent because I quit reading Gods Word and stopped my prayer life. I became dependent on things of this world that brought me pleasure and hung around people who made me feel good about myself.
I woke up one morning about 8 years later and wondered what happened. I was burdened with so much shame and guilt because I knew how wrong I was for leaving God and pursuing things of this world that brought me pleasure. I felt so far in the hole that there was no way I could get back to that personal relationship I had with God.
I met my wife Tracie in 1998 and began attending Ardmore Baptist Church with her. Since Tracie was a believer, but hadn't been baptized and I was never baptized when I accepted Jesus, we were baptized together, shortly before we were married in August of 1999. We continued to attend church at Ardmore Baptist every Sunday, until we transferred to First Christian.
I became addicted to pain killers and muscle relaxers after a major surgery in December of 2001. After trying to commit suicide and being in and out of rehab with no success I was at the end of my rope in 2006. The evening of July 31, 2006, my 3 year old daughter came up to me and asked me to play with her in the middle of having withdrawal symptoms, and I told her no. This wasn't the first time I told her no, but it was the first time I was sober enough to see the hurt in her face. I made up my mind that I would never tell her “no” again. I hit my knees and asked God for forgiveness and rededicated my life to him. I decided that night, with God’s help no matter what, I would never put myself in a position to make my daughter and wife feel as unloved as I made them feel every day up until that night. August 1,2006 I entered 30 day rehab and I am still sober today because of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The same day I entered rehab my wife and my daughter left and we were separated for 17 months, sharing custody and still attending church together. With everything evil that I had done the Lord blessed me with 17 months of one on one time with my daughter teaching me how to be a father to Kaitlyn and a husband to Tracie. We had no intention of ever getting back together, but the Lord had other plans. He softened both of our hearts and once the Lord was first in each of our lives He brought us back together in 2008 so He could be first in our marriage. My daughter is now 7 and with the strength of my Lord I haven't broken that promise.
Deric Cook, who I consider a brother, saw my desire to grow and he wasn't going to allow me to use my A.D.D. as an excuse for not being able to focus on, retain or understand what I read. So in Jan. of this year God put on his heart to equip me with a couple of tools to combat my excuses. The first was 300 plus podcast sermons that got me so fired up I knew I didn't want to live like a luke warm Christian anymore and the second was ESV study bible which I consider the best gift I have ever received besides my salvation. I have immersed my life in prayer and I can’t get enough of this good book. I remember 2 months ago I was so excited to learn that of the 4 Gospels only 2 were written by apostles and I had to tell everybody!
After having it in prayer for the first five months of 2010, the Lord put on my heart to quit Target, my Part time job of 3.5 years and simply paint. I thought it meant paint because he was going to bless my art financially but that’s not what he said. God said, Corby “just paint.” His blessings were so much grander. This art has opened doors to allow me to share this testimony you're reading right now. PRAISE GOD!!!!
My life is a living testament that if you surrender your life to God, run to him and don’t look back the Holy Spirit will grow in you. He’ll fill you with more peace and love than you could ever imagine and God will begin to use you to Glorify him beyond all belief.
