I Sold My Soul to the Devil
By Gorman Woodfin
The 700 Club
CBN.com – Todd Beezley lived a lonely childhood. He was born with
brittle bone disease and spent much of his young life in the hospital.
He broke 70 bones at various times and had 28 hospital stays. The
disease eventually caused deformities in his small frame.
Todd couldn't spend his school years with other children. Instead, a
tutor came to his house from 1st grade through 6th grade. Then from
7th through 11th grade, Todd got the help of his fellow classmates.
Says Todd, "I had a two-way telephone system between my house and the
school. Classmates would carry this little cow bell speaker/microphone
from classroom to classroom and plug it into the telephone jacks there
so I could hear what was going on in class."
Todd's life took a dark turn during one of his lonely hospital stays.
"I had overheard the doctor telling my mom on the eve of a surgery in
Milwaukee back in 1959 that they didn't know if they could save my
leg," Todd recalls. "He thought that I was out of earshot when he told
my mom that in the hallway, but I could hear it."
Todd was devastated. That is when another patient told him that he had
the answer to Todd's dilemma.
"A 13-year-old child in the bed next to me said, 'Everything will be
OK with your leg if you just join my club.' I said, 'What club is
that?' He said, 'The devil's club, but you've got to understand, once
you've joined, there's no way out. And you can never tell anyone.' "
Todd's Christian upbringing had not prepared him for this-but he
desperately wanted to save his leg.
"I agreed to join. That night it felt like I had sold my soul, I had
lost it forever. The internal pain, the agony of that moment, was just
horrendous," Todd reveals.
Amazingly, his leg began to heal.
"The bone six weeks later had grown in straighter and stronger in my
left leg than in my lower right leg, which had never broken," he
explains.
As years passed and his guilt grew, Todd desperately searched for a
way out of his vow.
"I even took time to look into the Bible at that point, but all I
could see there was 'woe unto you hypocrites,' " Todd says. "I thought
God hated me. Every Sunday I would be dragged into the presence of an
angry God with cold feet and cold hands."
So Todd rejected his Christian upbringing.
"I ran as far away from God as I could possibly get once I got out on
my own. I wanted to put Him out of my mind and enjoy my life on earth
while I was here because I figured I was headed for hell, so I might
as well enjoy what time I had," he says. "That's why I got off into
the drugs and got into other sinful things and just ran from God."
But in retrospect, Todd says God did not give up on him.
"He kept pursuing me," Todd says. "I went through eight auto accidents
in three years without a scratch. Then a tornado went 10 feet over my
car when I was in Jackson, Tenn. That was the most scared moment of my
life."
Todd's near-death experiences pushed him to search once again for God,
the same God that he had fled from.
"I didn't know where to find him," Todd admits. "I had been gone from
Him for so long."
In other areas, life moved forward for Todd. He married a wonderful,
kind-hearted woman named Sherry. With Todd's talented voice, he
excelled in a radio career.
"Part of that job responsibility as morning announcer was also
production director, which meant I recorded the commercials and
religious programming for Sunday morning. There was a pastor who came
to record one of his sermons, and he asked after our recording
session, 'Have you ever accepted Christ as your Savior?' " Todd
remembers.
Todd had never shared his dark, satanic secret with anyone. But that
day, Todd confided everything to this pastor.
"He showed me from Scripture over coffee that the devil is a liar and
the father of lies and that Jesus still loved me, that I still had
hope and I could be saved," says Todd. "It was like throwing a rope to
a drowning man, so I reached out and I accepted the Lord as my
Savior."
Todd says that by making that decision for Christ, a great weight was
lifted off of his shoulders.
"I was able to go tell my wife what I had been involved in. I was able
to go tell my parents, my mom and my dad," he says.
Years later Todd and Sherry had a son named Joshua. Todd was
devastated when he found out his newborn son also had brittle bone
disease, so Todd and Sherry began to pray for healing. To date,
Joshua, at age 10, has never broken a single bone.
Says Todd, "I'm delighted that God healed him. I knew all the pain
that I went through as a child with broken bones. For him to be
spared, that's the most merciful thing that I could ever imagine or
ask for."
Today Todd encourages everyone to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.
"Jesus came to set us free from sin and give us hope, no matter what
we've been involved in," he explains. "I don't care if you've sold
your soul to Satan. I don't care how far into the depths of the occult
you've sunk, if you are a witch or whatever. There's hope for you.
Jesus loves you, and He can set you free. He did it for me. He can do
it for you, too."
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Ezekiel 18:4-32 (NRSV)
4 Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the
life of the child is mine: it is only the person who sins that shall
die.
20 The person who sins shall die. A child shall not suffer for the
iniquity of a parent, nor a parent suffer for the iniquity of a child;
the righteousness of the righteous shall be his own, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be his own.
21 But if the wicked turn away from all their sins that they have
committed and keep all my statutes and do what is lawful and right,
they shall surely live; they shall not die. 22 None of the
transgressions that they have committed shall be remembered against
them; for the righteousness that they have done they shall live. 23
Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and
not rather that they should turn from their ways and live? 24 But when
the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity
and do the same abominable things that the wicked do, shall they live?
None of the righteous deeds that they have done shall be remembered;
for the treachery of which they are guilty and the sin they have
committed, they shall die.
25 Yet you say, "The way of the Lord is unfair." Hear now, O house of
Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? 26 When
the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity,
they shall die for it; for the iniquity that they have committed they
shall die. 27 Again, when the wicked turn away from the wickedness
they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save
their life. 28 Because they considered and turned away from all the
transgressions that they had committed, they shall surely live; they
shall not die. 29 Yet the house of Israel says, "The way of the Lord
is unfair." O house of Israel, are my ways unfair? Is it not your ways
that are unfair?
30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according
to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your
transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin.c 31 Cast away
from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me,
and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O
house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone,
says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live.
End
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