From Darkness to Light
The Testimony of Mark D. Bessette

I was raised in a Catholic home. I received all of the sacraments for my sake of my parents, even though I did not believe in any of them; I merely went through the motions. The city that I lived in during my high school years had, in one square mile, sixty-seven barrooms/saloons (that means as many as three on every street)! That turned out to be the beginning of my drinking days. At the age of eighteen, I joined the Marine Corps. During my time in the Marines, I started playing with drugs and working in nightclubs as the "power man." This is when the flesh kicked into high gear. The world of violence entered, and the devil had me hook, line and sinker. Living like the devil became a way of life. I attended catholic church services, but only to get out of the barracks. Upon completing my tour of duty with the Marine Corps, I returned home to Rhode Island. The bars were noticeably fewer, but the cocaine trade from Columbia was in full force and I slipped my way right in. I spent the next sixteen years of my life living under the cover of darkness.

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

My underworld existence was occupied with bikers, gangsters, drugs, drinking and violence. My sorted life was slowly catching up with me. In 1994, my world was coming in around me. My friends were now in jail or dead. The odds were not leaning in my favor. The low lifestyle I had been living was taking its toll. There were contracts out on my life and I knew my days in this world were numbered.

Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I began to search for the truth in channeling familiar spirits, Buddhism, and Tai-Chi.

Leviticus 19:31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 20:27 A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.

I even looked to positive-thinking and motivational speakers. These things left me still without hope and peace. There was something missing - I was hopelessly empty. Then waking up one day I decided to go to church. That morning I attended Christian Life Fellowship - Pastor Tony Saraiva - whom the Lord used to speak to my heart - preached the Gospel of the LORD JESUS CHRIST.

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Now I make known unto you brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand, but which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures;

That morning, March 15, 1994, I was born again by the grace of God. I was 36 years old and now saved from the pit of Hell.

Mark 9:44 where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

A month later GOD used another man who was a Christian Crusader, biker/evangelist to do a little more work on me. Then a few months later Pastor Tony Saraiva had one of his long running old fashion tent rivals like the days of old with the saw dust trail to repentance.

Acts 20:21 Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

I was now sure I had received the free gift of salvation through the shed blood of the LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by the grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.

During those weeks and months God began an overhaul of my life. Guns were traded in for Bibles.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The nightlife, drinking, drugs and violence were now things of the past. A new man was rising from the depths of depravity.

Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin;

2 Corinthians 5:17 Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.

I began the search for truth and the Bible became my instruction manual. Up to this point in my life, I had never read a book. As I was reading my bible and attending church, God called me to preach, that souls might be saved - at that time, the burden for bikers, men in prison, and young people on the streets. I knew that they were the groups God was calling me to minister to. In 1997, the Lord began preparing me for the ministry by sending me to a King James Bible Believing Pastor, Gary A. Piette, at Sold Rock Bible Baptist Church in Blackstone, Mass.

It was at this church God began laying the foundation of the word of God. Through the Bible teaching of Pastor Piette, God showed me I had the wrong bible. GOD had a Bible that preserved and that Bible is The Old Black-Backed 66 Caliber AV-1611 King James Bible. Glory to GOD!

Psalms 12:6-7 The words of the LORD [are] pure words: [as] silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, though shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

The next truth that I was shown was the need to rightly divide the word of God.

2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

I started going to the prisons with Pastor. God used Pastor Piette's faithful preaching and teaching in the ministering of the word, to reveal to me that I needed to be trained up in the word of God as well.

1 Corinthians 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

2 Timothy 2:2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

One day in July, 2002, while driving bus for the RI Transit Authority, I started thinking about my life and what my job was really doing for me. All I saw was a new car, motorcycle, house and a vacation: all to do with the world, and nothing spiritual. I knew I was called to preach from the time I got saved. I knew that school was in God's plan for me but I was dragging my feet and was scared to death to make a move.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

That day God gave me these verses:

1 Kings 19:19-21 So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.

From that day forward I gave in and submitted to the call of God on my life to preach the gospel. I sold everything that I had and left for Pensacola, Florida to enroll at Pensacola Bible Institute. There has been three things that have changed my life: getting saved; finding God's word (the King James Bible); and going to school to learn how to rightly divide the book and teach it. This old man became the "EX" marine, biker, gangster, drug dealer.
Now GOD has called the new man to be home missions. Old School Bible Ministries to the prisons, bikers and truckers.

1 Corinthians 1:19-20 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the discernment of the discerning will I bring to nought. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

1 Corinthians 1:21-29 For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise, and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose, yea and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are: that no flesh should glory before God.

Mark D. Bessette
"...Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

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