‘Never too late’: 85-year-old reflects on baptism after revival service

For 85 years H.L Davis was in church on Sun­days and was surrounded in his home (as a child and adult) by other believers. He even was baptized as a boy in Mississippi, thinking he was saved because of it.

But after months of the Holy Spirit pricking his heart during worship ser­vices with Philadelphia Baptist Church Horseshoe Drive, he was convicted that he needed to truly surrender to Christ. So, Sept. 15, at age 85, he walked forward during a revival service and confessed his sins and pro­fessed his love for Jesus.

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“I hesitated, thinking I would be the only old person down front with all these young people,” Davis told the Baptist Message. “I had put it off for months, but God kept speaking to me. Finally, when He said it’s time to get up, I stepped out.”

Faith of others

Davis had a mother who, he said, was saved before he was born. His father regularly attended church but did not con­fess Christ until the age of 45 when he sent for a pastor and professed Jesus as Lord while on his deathbed in a hospital.

Davis also met his wife in church after his family had moved to Louisiana.

“There were quite a few youths in the church,” Davis said. “I met some of them. Then my cousin set me up on a blind date with one of the girls who went there.”

He said his cousin kept him in the dark, not sharing her name, raising his curiosity and causing a little nervousness.

“But when she walked out the door, I saw the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life — and she was actually going out with me,” he exclaimed. “I never dated anyone else. After that, about six months in, I asked her to marry me and she said, ‘Yes.’”

Importantly, he added, she was a believer.

“She always went to church, and I went with her,” he explained, and they built their life to­gether in the church.

He began a career as a small motor mechanic and worked his way up to service manager for a McCullough distributor. She even worked for a while as his secretary. They had a daughter, and she followed her mother’s example and as a Chris­tian became a prayer warrior.

Everything was going along great, he said.

He retired and they began to travel some. His daughter married and eventually moved with her husband into a house just down the street.

Then a series of trage­dies struck, beginning in 2014.

His wife was afflicted with a heart condition that made her breathing sensitive to tempera­tures above 69 degrees. At about the same time, his son-in-law died. His mother was diagnosed with cancer and died within two years. Then his daughter was stricken with a debilitating condi­tion that confined her to a motorized wheelchair. She moved in with her parents and Davis be­came caretaker for them both. Then his daughter and wife died within months of each other in 2024.

His own faith

Davis confessed that because of worldly dis­tractions (racing cars and motorbikes), he had not regularly attended church for two decades at that point (all the while thinking he was saved).

But he said during the year before his wife’s death, he and she became regular television watch­ers of the Philadelphia Baptist Church Deville worship services “and Brother Philip Robert­son,” pastor of the con­gregation which meets in two locations (Deville and Horseshoe Drive, Alexandria).

So, because of his fa­miliarity with the con­gregation, in the second week of January, Davis went to the Horse­shoe Drive campus.

“One week, Brother Stuart Sasser (Horseshoe Drive campus pastor) brought up the fact that if you’re not sure, you’re not saved. The next week he brought it up again that if you’re not sure, you’re lost,” he added. “I knew I was lost and kept putting it off, putting it off. Finally, during re­vival [in September] the evangelist, Ken Freeman, said it plain and simple, ‘You are or you’re not.’ And God said to me, ‘Go.’”

A new life

Davis already was active with a Sunday school class on the PBC Horseshoe Drive campus. But after he was baptized two days later (during the revival by Sasser), he said it was just like Free­man had said, “I went from good to great.”

“I do my Bible read­ing every morning and pray every morning,” he shared. “This past week I started going out with the F.A.I.T.H. outreach teams. I can’t talk to people, yet [sharing the Gospel]. But I can drive and I can pray.”

“Something else I’m interested in is the di­saster relief ministry. I already talked to the co­ordinator about it,” Davis said. “When they go out, I’m going out. I can run a small chainsaw, and I can sharpen chains. I know the saws, and can fix them, and I can relieve one of the guys to work outside. If a storm comes up, I’m ready to go.”

Davis also has an ur­gent message for others his age who are hesitat­ing about salvation.

“Make sure you are saved,” he said. “If you have any doubt, don’t put it off. Christ is calling, but you don’t know how long He will keep call­ing.”

Still, Davis encouraged others that “even at 85 years old, it’s not too late.

“It’s never too late!”

EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Will Hall and originally published by the Baptist Message.