About me
At the conclusion to the Parable of the Wedding Feast, Jesus spoke very profound words (that are still true today), "For many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:13). This is the "General Call" for ALL - ALL of us - who truly NEED the Great Physician to wash us clean with His life-changing and life-giving BLOOD so as to heal us/save us/give us a NEW spiritual birth. And this leads to the FEW who are chosen (the "Effectual Call") that actually consists of those who truly believe - a BIG difference, the difference between an eternity in HEAVEN or in HELL!
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Just who is this Thomas Candeto and what is his testimony? His life is typical, yet atypical so read on and prepare to be amazed how he was "called and chosen" for this unique ministry!
I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and experienced what might be a typical southern suburban upbringing - good family, good church, good friends, good schools, good times! Life was very simple in the 1960s and 70s and everything seemed according to how it should be. I also was baptized in the eighth grade when I professed my faith by testifying that, "I believe, with all my heart, that Jesus is the Son, the Son of the Living God." So far, so good, one would most likely say! HOWEVER, appearances are often misleading. While the externals appeared to be in order, I always felt deep inside of myself that I did not belong in this world, that I was an outcast not fitting in, and that someone and something was absent and missing in my life. OR, I should say, SOMEONE much bigger than myself was missing in/from my life because I never could find true joy and happiness, satisfaction, pleasure, love, and peace in life through sinful pursuits (try as I might)! I was unhappy, but convinced myself that "Life Is Good!" (though it really wasn't!).
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I was spiritually lost though, to myself, I never would have acknowledged this to anyone and I certainly would not have accepted this truth FROM anyone! I know this as a fact from God to me now because I have been told and shown my hypocrisy! This is proven by this cold, hard truth: I only was baptized so that I could take communion - I was embarrassed to be the only one in my eighth grade Sunday School class to pass by the communion trays. Talk about a liar, a thief, a blasphemer, a hypocrite in God's eyes! Yet, I thought that I was saved! AND, God has given me this testimony to tell the world the truth so as to help others see that many are like I WAS! I testify to this truth now not thinking that this is an embarrassment to me (so I better keep quiet to "save face"), but to glorify God and His saving me from the error of MY ways!
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Because, think about this truth: If God had NOT shown me His great mercy, grace, and love and told/shown me the ERROR of my ways, I would have gone on to Judgment Day thinking in my own pride that I was truly saved, and then Jesus would have told me, "Depart from Me you evildoer as I have NEVER known you!" I would have protested, but to no avail! Can you not see that the Scriptures are true as relates to my hypocrisy and false profession/belief, but also to how I (undeserving as I was and am) was shown free grace/saving grace. It has NOTHING to do with me and EVERYTHING to do with GOD! I deserve Hell because of my sins, yet do NOT get what I deserve (Hell) by mercy, and get Heaven (UNdeserved) by grace!
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I will share my conversion from being a false professor and believer - telling myself that I was saved - to becoming a new creature, a true believer where the Holy Spirit abiding in me tells me that I am saved! That said, I thought that I was saved by all the external rites, ceremonies, and traditions - baptism, reading Scriptures, saying I believed, saying I loved Jesus, praying, family tradition of going to church, etc. I was counting on the same externals for salvation that the Lord rebuked the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law for - these externals were FOR SHOW to the world AND we must remember that they crucified Him for doing so, for speaking the TRUTH as written in the Scriptures! So, I was nothing more than a false professor, a false believer, a hypocrite!, a SELF-righteous person!, and a MODERN DAY PHARISEE as I was NOT saved no matter what I told myself!
When God gives to you a new heart - a heart of flesh - this mean a change of life, a change of lifestyle where Jesus becomes first and foremost in your life. I thought I could still live the same life as before and not change my "worldly" ways as I was S-A-V-E-D! I still had multiple false gods and idols and God is a jealous GOD - He does not share His glory! Either Him or not, in or out, saved or unsaved - there are no grey areas as truly it is only HIS way - not OURS!
In January 2019, I was walking in the cold and I heard that voice that is inaudible to the world - the Spirit of my Lord and my God said to me, "It is time to turn to God and Christ!" God spoke directly to me - an enemy of God, a lost soul, spiritually dead, sick and dying desperately in the need of a Physician, a true outcast! - and this is shown true by Ezekiel 33:11, "Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'" I was being told to TURN FROM MY EVIL WAYS, REPENT, AND LIVE!
So, why did God condescend to become man and come into this world? For a person such as myself! As Luke 5:31-32 states to us: 31Jesus answered, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the (self) righteous, but sinners (outcasts), to repentance." I needed Jesus, but I didn't WANT Jesus! Yet, here I was being shown divine mercy, grace, and love as I didn't chose Jesus, but I WAS being called and chosen for Jesus, the bride for the Bridegroom! John 15:16 states that, "You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name." I repented and I was now with TRUE assurance of hope, faith, and salvation.
AND, the time had come to "talk the talk" which is proven when we "walk the walk" with Jesus Christ - Saving Faith is PROVEN by Good Works! Saved ONLY by God's mercy, grace, and love! As James 2:26 so poignantly states, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." James rebukes those who are claiming that they have faith in Jesus Christ, but do NOT show it / prove it by their good works! If you talk the talk, then prove it by walking the walk with Jesus! Otherwise, you are nothing more than a hypocrite and there is nothing worse in God's eyes!
So, I myself have not been to seminary as I am only a simple fisherman, a simpleton who was once a tax collector. I remember others who were also called and chosen. By NO means were they educated - by no stretch of the imagination - UNTIL they sat at their Master's feet and He taught them directly! AND, they knew more than the educated Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who only knew the letter of the Law and not the Spirit of the Law. These were the apostles of the Lord and He chose them to glorify Him, not to share or usurp His glory! These common, ordinary fishermen became fishermen for PEOPLE - for SOULS!
One of the greatest privileges and blessings is to sit at Jesus' feet and to be taught directly from the Master Himself. After all, NO man who has lived, is living, or ever will live can teach His Word better than Jesus Christ Himself! In the four gospels, the entirety of Jesus' ministry - THREE years - the chosen twelve sat and listened to Jesus teach them the Word, the Truth, the Way, the Life. The One whom the prophets spoke of in the Old Testament had come to save Israel! Though one was the devil, the other eleven were true believers that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God! And, after their three year "apprenticeship" at the feet of Jesus, Jesus commanded them to go forth out into the world for the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20).
A case study of divine intervention leading to the sitting at the feet of Jesus is the conversion of Saul to Paul. When Saul was on the road to Damascus to persecute believers and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial, we see that he was blinded by the Lord, humbled, and this led to his repentance. How did Pharisee Saul who hated Jesus become Christian Paul who loved Jesus?
Paul described his conversion in Galatians 1:18: He says, "Three years later I went up to Jerusalem." Why did Paul wait three years before going to Jerusalem? Paul was being taught by the Lord Jesus DIRECTLY - His indwelling Spirit! Some biblical scholars believe that God gave Paul three years because the twelve also had three years. And, as before with the eleven, Paul was sent forth as a part of the Great Commission!
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This is also my story - for the past five years and four months I have sat at Jesus' feet and I have been taught directly by His Spirit! I have been taught this way because I have been called and chosen for Someone and something much greater than myself! I am being trained for a very difficult mission that the Lord has entrusted to me - this is my "apprenticeship" so to speak being prepared for what lies ahead! Is this not similar to the apostle Paul? Think about how the men and women in the Bible are like us and we like them! Their stories are not exclusive to them and the times in the Bible, but serve as examples to us! We are them, they are us! And, this goes for the good, the bad, and the ugly that encompasses this thing we call LIFE!
Please go to the next section, "The Story Behind the e-Dragster," for further proof of how great Thou art! Only God's omnipotence and omniscience could be the cause and effect, the means and the end, and the means to the end for myself, this e-Dragster, and the forthcoming mission! All to HIS glory! Praise be to Him!
