We do not claim perfect doctrine, but we do guarantee you will find a collection of biblical truths here that will reveal your place in Yahweh’s plan and provide you with new insight about events of today. It is our prayer that you are edified by your visit to our site and, more importantly, that you will be drawn to the cross and empty tomb of our Lord and Savior Yeshua the Christ and to His precious truths.
For interviews or speaking engagements, Ted R. Weiland may be contacted here.
Ted R. Weiland’s Testimony
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. (2 Corinthians 4:5)
Who would have imagined that Yahweh1 would choose what had been a tobacco-spitting, cussing, ignorant cowboy to serve Him, bring glory to His name, and help advance His kingdom? Before 1974, I certainly didn’t have the foggiest notion that Yahweh would or even could perform such a feat. But He is ever true to His promises, including those found in 1 Corinthians 1:
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of 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 ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:19-31)
I was reared in Ft. Collins, Colorado, in a nominally Catholic home. We went to Mass most Sunday mornings and midnight services on Christmas Eve. I endured three and half years of Catholic education before my parents, for financial reasons, pulled me out to attend public school.
Praise Yahweh, none of the Catholic teaching stuck. As a boy, I was much more interested in hunting and fishing than in anything the priests or nuns had to offer. The only thing I recall about those formative grade school years is the day my best friend and I beat the tar out of the school bully and got into trouble with the nuns. There’s not much I remember about my early years in public education either, but, regrettably, more stuck from my years in public schools—not so much from the academics as from those whom I fell in with during my junior and senior high school days.
Left to myself, I probably would not have been a “bad” kid, but I took up with a neighbor who did not have any compunction about stealing and other illicit activities and, of course, what he did, I did as well (1 Corinthians 15:33). The most ironic part about our relationship was that, although he was usually the instigator of our scandalous activities, he had more (as little as it may have been) regard for God than I did. I recall him being alarmed at the fact that I would unabashedly place my hand on a Bible and swear I was telling the truth when we both knew I was lying. During those teenage years, God was not even a passing thought in my mind.
In my junior year of high school, my friend and I began competing in both high school and amateur rodeos. I rode all three bucking events (barebacks, saddle broncs, and bulls). My passion (the god in my life at the time) was bull riding. It was my intention to be world champion. But Yahweh had other plans for this cowboy.
Upon graduating from high school in 1973, I joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). En route to a rodeo in Estes Park, Colorado, something occurred that forever changed my life. Four of us (a bareback rider, another bull rider, his wife, and I) were riding in a Ford pickup. About halfway between Ft. Collins and Loveland, Colorado, we hit another car head-on. Two of the four people in the other vehicle were killed. Because of where I was sitting, with my left foot on the hump where the stick shift attaches to the floor board, I fared the worst in our vehicle. When I looked down at my left leg, my foot was facing backwards, from just above my knee down. My back was broken as well.
My first thought was anger because I had drawn one of the better bulls, with which I might have won the event. My second thought was that they would amputate my leg at the knee, and that, consequently, I would have to figure out a way to ride bulls with a prosthetic leg (thankfully, the surgeons were able to put my leg back together, shortening it by only an inch and half rather than a foot and half).
But something else far more important stands out from this incident. Because of the way she was acting, I thought my bull riding buddy’s wife was dying. After someone untangled us from the crumpled and twisted steel and laid us out on the road to wait for the ambulances, I looked up into the sky and, on her behalf, prayed the simple prayer (where it came from I do not know), “God help us!” From that moment on, my life has never been the same.
As a result of the wreck (in truth it was the result of that prayer and having already been called by God), several months later, before I was fully recovered from my injuries, a family friend who was foreman of a nearby ranch, offered to hire me, increasing my wage as I increased my output.
The rancher was one of the first to bring Semmintal cattle into the United States. Because they had inseminated Herford heifers with much larger Semmintal bulls, most of the calves had to either be pulled or taken to the veterinarian hospital for C-sections. Consequently, the foreman put both a day and night crew on to ride the herd and bring in any heifers needing help in delivering their calves. I was one of two cowhands on the night crew, going out on horseback several times each night with lanterns to monitor the pregnant heifers. Providentially, the man with whom I spent those nights shared the gospel of Christ with me (1 Corinthians 15:1-5).
In between outings, back at the small trailer where we warmed up with large amounts of coffee, this man shared the Word of God with me and talked about my need to surrender my life to Christ as Lord and Savior. Initially, I wanted nothing to do with what he was saying. During the next two or three weeks, I drove to work and told myself that I did not want to listen to this guy. Yet, every night thereafter, something within me told me I desperately needed to hear what he could share, and, in spite of myself, I initiated the questions that generated our all-night biblical discussions.
Finally, I came to realize how desperately I needed Christ, His blood-atoning sacrifice, and His resurrection as my own. Convicted of my sins and need for forgiveness, I finally asked my friend what I needed to do to secure my salvation in Christ—a question asked three times in the New Testament, Acts 2:37, 16:30, and 22:10. Regrettably, he did not provide me the answer (in its entirety) found in all three of these passages. His answer, typical of contemporary “Christianity,” was that the only thing I needed to do was believe in Christ and ask him into my heart (the latter of which can be found nowhere in the Bible). At the time, knowing nothing else and having no reason to distrust my co-worker, one morning as I left work, I pulled to the side of a dirt road, rolled down the window of my pickup, looked into the starry sky, and asked Jesus to come into my heart.
Although, the Bible teaches no such means for salvation, my faith and repentance at that time were genuine, and, consequently, a conversion took place, and my life has been Yahweh’s ever since. End of story? Hardly! This was only the beginning.
Although I have been wholly converted to Christ from that day forward, my conversion on that day was no more my salvation in Christ than Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus was his salvation (Acts 22:1-16). But that day’s conversion would later lead me to salvation in Christ. Two years later, Yahweh led me to a local pastor, who shared with me the entire biblical plan of salvation and who baptized/immersed me into Christ for the forgiveness of my sins. It was then, according to the Scriptures, that I was born from above (2 Corinthians 5:17 and Romans 6:3-4, note the words “in” and “into”), was circumcised in my heart (Colossians 2:11-13), had my sins forgiven (Acts 2:38, 22:16), was granted salvation (Mark 16:16, 1 Peter 3:21), put on Christ (Galatians 3:26-27), and was added to the body of Christ (Acts 2:41, 1 Corinthians 12:13).2
Afterwards, I discovered that the pastor who baptized me into Christ had played another part in my salvation two years earlier on that eventful July day in 1973. After the car wreck, this same pastor had driven by, while we were stretched out on the pavement, waiting for the ambulances to arrive. The pastor had prayed for the people involved in the horrific accident, having no idea whom he was praying for. Soon after he baptized me into Christ, I shared the story of the accident with him, and upon hearing the name of the driver of our vehicle, he immediately recognized the name. His destination that day had been the home of the grandparents of our driver, with whom he was to have a Bible study.
I’m convinced this pastor’s first prayer was immediately before, at the same time, or immediately after my simple prayer, “God help us!” Yahweh answered that prayer in ways I could have never imagined at the time, including using the pastor who drove by and prayed for us as the man who would, two years later, baptize me into Christ. Yahweh has continued to answer that day’s prayers and has proven He can use the most ignoble of men to bring Him glory and help advance His kingdom.
If you have yet to surrender your life in faith and repentance and be immersed into Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, I implore you not to hesitate. If I can assist you in your decision, please contact me.
End Notes
1. YHWH, the English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, is most often pronounced Yahweh. It is the principal Hebrew name of the God of the Bible and was inspired to appear nearly 7,000 times in the Old Testament. It was unlawfully deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, “The Third Commandment” may be read online, or Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH thy God in vain may be ordered from Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for a suggested $4 donation.*
2. Not everyone claiming to be a Christian has been properly instructed in the biblical plan of salvation. Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:36-41, 22:1-16; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 2:11-13; and 1 Peter 3:21 should be studied to understand what is required to be covered by the blood of Christ and forgiven of your sins. For a more thorough explanation concerning baptism and its relationship to salvation, the book Baptism: All You Wanted to Know and More may be requested from Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for free.
*We are admonished in Matthew 10:8 “freely ye have received, freely give.” Although we have a suggested price for our books, we do not sell them. In keeping with 2 Corinthians 9:7, this ministry is supported by freewill offerings. If you cannot afford the suggested price, inform us of your situation, and we will be pleased to provide you with whatever you need for whatever you can send.
