"I didn't have God fooled." says Gage
By RENEE WALSER
It's hard to imagine --
by looking at the confident
young man with uncommon
good looks and a long stride
coming around the high
school football stadium to
the stage where he would
preach and try to win some
souls -- it's hard to imagine
him on his hands and knees
in front of an audience cry-
ing out, "God forgive me.
Take control of my life.
Save me."
But life had come to
that for Rick Gage at age
25.
“] surrendered my all
Jan. 15, 1984," he said re-
cently during an interview.
Since then Gage has
turned his back on sin, he
said, and made winning
souls for the Lord the cen-
ter of his life.
"It was like a thousand
pounds were lifted off m
shoulders," he said. :
What brought Gage --
outwardly, a "typical, clean-
cut” youngster from Texas
who was involved in all
types of sports during his
growing years and came
from a religious family (his
father is Freddie Gage, a
famous evangelist) -- to his
knees that night?
Gage is the third of
four sons. His father has
preached the gospel for 41
years. At age eight, Gage
walked down the aisle of
his Southern Baptist
church and made a profes-
sion of faith. He thought
that was all there was to it.
All the time, claiming
to be a Christian, Gage said
he got involved in all the
things teens are involved in
today -- drugs, alcohol, par-
ties.
"I would live like the
“devil during the week, but
come Sunday, I would be
your all-American boy," he
said. "I had my folks fooled.
I had my Sunday School
teacher fooled. Obviously, I
didn't have God fooled."
During his teens, he
would rededicate his life at
various crusades, but it did-
n't seem to make a long-
term impact on his life. He
would still participate in
the temptations facing col-
lege students, even though
he was on a four-year schol-
arship for playing football.
"I got sucked in with
my peers,” he said. "I knew
how to play both sides of
the fence.
"Spiritually, I never
questioned whether or not I
would go to heaven if I
died. That didn't hit me un-
til I truly met the Lord. All
I knew was football."
Upon graduation from ;
college, Gage said the only .
thing he was interested in
doing was coaching. He was.
hired at Texas Tech.
~ See Gage Page 6
Rick Gage spoke to 1,100 high school students and 900 middle school students while visiting Kings Mountain.