"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
2 Corinthians 5:17
Now and again I reflect upon the time in my life when I got born-again and the early years of my salvation, and where I am now. It was such an exciting and unforgettable time in my life. A time of new beginnings and a clean slate. I was so thankful to God, and so eager to grow in my walk with Jesus.
I was twenty years old when this all began. A month or two before my twenty first birthday. My life seemed to be a mess, and it was. How did I end up this way? After all, I had been brought up in church as a child and learned how to do all the things a good little church boy was supposed to do. I went to Sunday School, Children's Church, Royal Rangers, the Christian school at the church, and I even memorized Scripture! In fact, the first verse of the Bible I learned was John 3:16 when I was only three years old. If you asked me to quote that verse I could shoot it back at you in no time. I was good!
Despite being brought up in the church and living in a Christian home, at the time I did not want to follow God. There was never a time when I surrendered my life to Him. Church was just something that I did because that's where my mom brought me, but I was never really feeling it. I did what I had to do and made some friends in the process.
As I got older, around the time I became a teenager, I did whatever I could to keep from going to church. It seemed like there were better things to do with my time, like staying up late on Saturday night and sleeping in on Sundays, play some video games, and catch WWF (now WWE) wrestling at noon. There were much more important things to do with my time than wasting it going to church. So I thought.
Life was about me, and what I wanted to do. I didn't want God and I tried to get as far from Him as I could. I recall times when He would knock on the door of my heart, but I would say "no." In fact, I remember one time in particular in my bedroom when God was working on me. I told Him to "Leave me alone! Not now! After high school. I want friends. I want to have fun. I want to live life." So I went on doing my thing. God was calling me to Himself, but I told Him to go away and I lived life the way I wanted to.
I went through high school making one poor decision after another. I got caught up with people I should have never been involved with doing things I should have never done. I would have to say that high school was a lot of fun. It's just that I had to go from one thrill to the next to have a sense of "fulfillment." I was never satisfied.
After graduation my life seemed like a huge drama for the next couple of years. I was sick of it. I was ashamed of the choices I had made, the circumstances I was in, and who I had become. Life was exactly how I wanted it to be...my way. I was on the road to hell. During this time God began to work on my hardened heart. I didn't want anything to do with God or the church, but suddenly I had an urge I could not explain to read the Bible. So I went back to my mom's and got the Bible I had as a kid and began reading it. For some reason these words had life, and a thousand memories of my childhood began to race through my head. Scripture I learned as a child began to come to remembrance. Songs I learned while in Sunday School began to come back to me.
I knew I needed change in my life. I had tried to fix things on my own and it didn't work. I would now give my life to Jesus, because He was my only hope. So I did. Three times I prayed to Him one evening. I asked Him to forgive me, believing that what He did on the cross payed for my sin and that He rose from the dead. I pledged my life to Him and turned from sin, and I decided to go after Him with all of my life. I turned my life over to Him. I asked to be born-again. I prayed three times because I didn't feel anything the first two times, so I prayed again. I still didn't feel anything. So I figured He had to have heard me and I will just see what happens next.
Well, He definitely heard me! I didn't feel what I thought or even expected I would feel. I left it as an act of faith, and God honored that. I soon saw evidence of my salvation. I was changing, and it seemed like I wasn't even trying to change...God was changing me from the inside out! My desires and "want to's" were changing. I was becoming a different person...
To be continued...
I will continue this blog as I share with you some of my experiences as I came to Christ and how I grew in my relationship with Him. I hope to be able to point you to Jesus and/or help you grow in your walk with Him as I share from my own experiences and the biblical principles I have learned during my walk with Christ. What are your thoughts?
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