It was 28 years ago today that two students from San Diego State came to my dorm at UCLA and shared the Gospel with me. Johnny and Steve met me in the stairwell and asked me if I had been reading the Bible. I had, but was not understanding it.
A couple of months previously I had been invited to an evangelical outreach dinner that was sponsored by a Christian fraternity called Alpha Gamma Omega. Wendi had invited me to it. I can only remember two things about it: David ZagRodny wearing a kilt (it was an international theme) and the speaker presented the Gospel in such a way that I first began to understand that Jesus Christ was important for reasons other than Christmas and Easter.
From that dinner in October or November, I started reading the Bible but didn't have a clue what it said. I started at the beginning in the book of Genesis. I was doing OK until I got to Chapter 5 when all of the"begetting" takes place. I couldn't see where this was going so I thought I'd switch gears. I looked at the table of contents and saw that the Bible was divided into two parts - the Old Testament and the New Testament. Advertising has taught me that 'new' is always better, plus it's an improvement on the past. So I turned to the first book in the New Testament, Matthew. Matthew starts out with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, starting with Abraham begetting Isaac who begat Jacob who begat... ugh. How could anyone understand this?!
I invited them to my room where they shared God's plan of salvation with me. They showed me verses in the Bible like Romans 3:23 (For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God) and Romans 6:23 (For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord). The key verse for me was 1 John 5:11, 12 "And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the Life, he who does not have the Son does not have the Life." I realized that I did not have eternal life and that I was being offered it freely.
That was 28 years ago today and my life has not been the same. Things don't always go the way I want nor are things always perfect. But I have purpose, direction and know that I have eternal life. This past month I met some people that have been questioning me asking me how I know I'm saved. I have not experienced the "second blessing" as they call it and I think that according to them I'm not really saved (probably a future blog after I give it more thought and study.) However, I can still remember that Monday night on the 4th floor in Dykstra Hall when I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. I didn't know all of what I was getting into but that's OK. If I knew everything about God, He wouldn't be God, would He?
So it's time to put another candle on my birthday cake - I'm another year older and closer to Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment