It was February 22, 1992 when my life was changed finally for the better. I remember it clearly because it had taken 42 years to reach this point. It happened about 7:30 pm. I saw it just as clearly as the flowers on a spring morning. It was the most marvelous experience that anyone could possibly know.
There was nothing that could have prepared me for the transformation. It was exciting and peaceful all at once and I KNEW! I knew the truth. I could never go back. I was indeed transformed.
The time since I was 6 was spent either fully engrossed in the Bible and God's teachings or fully engrossed with a vaguely guilty conscience following the flesh or the world with abandon (mostly the latter). Drugs, sex and alcohol had all been done with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Witchcraft, seances, eastern religions, new age religious affectations (yoga, meditation, etc.) I studied, looked into or tried most of it. I even charted horoscopes for people as well as taking college courses in parapsychology. I was even involved with a couple of main stream churches that taught half truths and raised themselves up as spreading the Gospel when, in fact, the gospel they spread was a different gospel and one not of GOD.
I went to college and learned about religious beliefs. You do not know what is being fed to your children in college. I did experiments with my mother reading cards (telling fortunes). I hooked up electrodes to her head and kept track of the brain wave activity during the reading. People really do that sort of foolishness. That was 30 years ago and that sort of thing has not declined.
I thought sometimes that I had been forgotten. I was in so deep that there appeared to be no way out. There is no point in citing specific examples of my poor behavior. The tendency of people is to say, "I haven't done anything that bad so I'm okay." The fact is that no one is "okay." We have all sinned and fall short of the Glory of GOD.
There has to be a standard to strive for outside of humanity. To gauge oneself by another human standard is futile. There will always be someone better or worse than ourselves. The only viable standard would be that of GOD. How do we know what GOD wants? How do we know what His standards are?
Those were the questions that I had to have answered for my own satisfaction. Then one day, I picked up a Book. It is a very controversial Book.
I looked at that Bible and thought to myself, "If so many people have tried to destroy it and it's still around, there has to be something to it. It has not changed substantially in 2,000 years. There has to be something to it."
And, of course, there is something to it. How can there not be? I started reading from page 1. I read the introduction, the pronunciation guide. I read everything. I read every available moment. And I cannot say that it was all riveting and I just could not put it down. I did put it down, many times. But I was simply drawn back to it. I had to find out what was so big that people had died for a BOOK!
The road to simply reading the Bible was fraught with frustration and confusion. How could it be that the answers to the Universe and the Will of God is in this BOOK? When I got to the book of Job, it was almost painful to read it was so frustrating. I got on my knees and asked Whoever was out there what was in there that was so important.
That is when I started listening to that still, small voice within me. It kept telling me to go to the New Testament. I did not want to and I kept disregarding that suggestion and I just kept getting more frustrated.
Finally, I said, to no one in particular, "All right! I'll start in the New Testament!" And I picked up that Bible and reluctantly started reading with Matthew 1:1. I read Matthew, Mark, Luke and was starting in John when the frustration level rose even though I knew I was on the right track.
It was in the third chapter of John that I saw it. I have trouble committing to one particular verse, but the whole third chapter opened my heart. That is when I saw it. I saw my sins nailed to the cross of Christ. The Peace that came over me was almost unbearable. I had never been at peace in my entire 42 years, and at that moment I knew why. This was my personal experience with the GOD and Creator of the Universe and that is how it HAS to be.
It has to be a personal experience with Him; not a priest, not a preacher, but GOD Almighty. No man can save you. No man has the ability to take away sin with the exception of One, GOD Incarnate. Jesus of Nazareth was born for one reason and one reason alone. He was born to die, to shed His blood for my sin. No one else could do that. It had to be the Son of GOD. He had to be sinless. He had to be the highest standard. He had to be The One!! There was no other choice.
I will never be perfect in this world. I rely on Him to bring me through each day. I still pull away from him from time to time. My testimony is not a shining example of what a Christian is supposed to be. What is different now than what I did before my rebirth? I am miserable when I am away from Him. When I do things that I know are an embarrassment to him, my conscience bothers me. That was not the case before.
Before, I felt a little twinge, but it was no big deal. I knew I was doing wrong. I even knew it was a sin, but it did not really matter.
Now, it matters. For Him to go through the agony of crucifixion for me and for me to do things that bring shame to Him is a travesty. I do not do the things that I used to do. I do not want to do them. The desire for those things has passed. The things that I do now that I feel are hurting Him are not reading His Word daily, not having communion with Him and not attending church regularly to Worship Him. Even though watching trash on TV may not hurt anyone but me, it takes away from my time with Him.
My priorities have changed and I am happier for it. I am finally at Peace and you can be, too.
You can have a relationship with HIM as well. It is not difficult to do. You simply have to want HIM. Open that dreaded BOOK and read it. Let it speak to you. Let HIM draw you to HIM.
So when I ask you if you will lie to a child, will you? Will you tell them that they are okay and they do not need to worry or will you tell them the truth about having a relationship with Jesus the Messiah? Remember that if they are old enough to understand and ask the question, they are old enough to go to Hell. Will you be responsible for sending a child to Hell? If I had died after I knew I was going to Hell, I surely would have been frying for eternity. It would have made no difference if I had been 7 or 37. I knew. I asked. I was told lies and bigger lies.
Will you lie to a child?
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