Romans 10:9 (ESV)
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
I was an agnostic until I was 21. I had been raised in a home with a religious mother but a non-religious father. We would go to church once in a great while, but my parents said they didn’t want to influence us in what path to take, so they presented, really, no path at all. I remember attending Catholic mass with my mother a few times in my teens, but I was really not impressed. When I asked sincerely where Cain got his wife, the priest said, “We don’t ask those sorts of questions.” I felt a blind faith was an empty faith, so I didn’t darken the door of a church for a long time.
When I met my wife, hers was a strong and genuine Christian family, and I began to attend church with them. By that time, I had come to the mistaken conclusion that Christianity was some sort of club. Most people I’d seen who attended church were good people. I wanted to be a good person, too, so I began to attend church. I was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran Church, but my view of Christianity hadn’t changed. I thought these folks who said you needed to be, “born again,” were just mouthing words someone else had coached them to say. It was a sort of game I understood and eventually learned to play myself.
In 1975, Jerry, a Jehovah’s Witness, was hired at work. Shortly thereafter he asked who the “born again” Christians were. I raised my had, and nearly every day after that he would raise one problem or other about what Christians believed. For a while, I went to my wife’s parents for answers for Jerry. They eventually gave me a copy of Walter Martin’s “Kingdom of the Cults,” where the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses were laid out plainly and how they differed from historic biblical Christianity.
At one point, Jerry and I began to talk about salvation and what it meant. Martin’s book laid the biblical position out clearly for me: salvation required turning control of my life over to Jesus Christ. I thought, “That’s great. I’ll share this with Jerry.” But, God said, “Read it again.” I had never really done it myself, turned my life over to God’s control. I was unwilling to let anyone control my life but me, so I said, “no” to God.
Well, after about six months of consciously fighting with God for my future, he finally threw me up against the wall and made it very clear what my choices were. He showed me the dark destination I was headed for. I saw what needed to be done and grudgingly turned my life, hook, lie, and sinker, over to Him.
It was the best decision I’ve ever made. My life was forever changed, and I now know what it means to have a personal one-on-one relationship with the God of the universe.
The reason I’m writing this is that I don’t think I’m the only one who thought Christianity was less than it is. Maybe you think that still. It’s not a club like the Lions or Elks. It’s the proverbial hospital for sinners. Jesus, its Head, is the one and only source for forgiveness of the sin in our lives and reaches out to us all to have a personal relationship with Him. We only need to make Him Lord of our lives, not a Character we know about and talk about. Knowing about someone is not the same as knowing someone. He’s real. His gift of salvation and forgiveness is real. The peace and joy that accompany His forgiveness is real. If you haven’t taken advantage of it, there’s no time like the present. Just ask Him to take charge of your life and follow Him.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 