Richard Baker, a man deeply troubled and disillusioned during his teen years and into his early years of marriage. Drugs and alcohol controlled his life and, consequently, his behavior. Impulsive and angry, he ran from the authority of parents, the authority of law enforcement, and, ultimately, from the authority of God. From being a drug user, he became a drug dealer and, in his words, “came close to completely selling his soul to the devil.” Although brought up in a Christian home, the influences to which he submitted were dark and foreboding—that is, until Christ sought him out, found him, and elevated him into a godly life of sacrificial service. Baker knows that identifying himself as a worm is an apt description of his life before Christ and cringes at the thought of what he once was. Today, he weeps at the thought of what he has become through the grace of God. Baker’s story is one of plunging the depths of sin, but is also a story of reaching the heights of Christian service through the redeeming power of God’s grace.
