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The way
in which the Lord brought me to Himself has a touch of divine irony when I
consider my pastoral position here at Grace Community Church. Let me explain.
I grew up
in Chattanooga, Tennessee the eldest of two brothers and a sister. We had a
wonderful family and were always connected in some way with a local church.
When I was nine years old, I began to experience a terror about death and
Hell based on what was being taught in my Sunday school class. After letting
my Dad know that I wasn’t sleeping because of this fear, he took me to see
the pastor. The pastor and I had a brief chat during which I said that I
believed in Jesus and did not want to go to Hell. He prayed with me and
assured me that that prayer had solved all my worries. The next Sunday I was
baptized and thought all was settled between God and me.
However,
my teen years revealed a life that was out of tune with what the Bible
describes as genuine faith. I worshipped sports, academics, music, and girls.
Yet my conscience was never quiet. Conviction, discontentment, and worry
haunted me to the point that I “asked Jesus into my heart” more times than I
could ever count. But there was never change.
But
everything changed when I was sixteen. I was working at a YMCA as a lifeguard
and came in on a Saturday morning about 5 AM to scrub the gutters of the pool
before we opened at six. As I walk into the indoor poolroom, I mindlessly
turned on the radio and walked to the other side of the pool to begin
scrubbing. It wasn’t until then that I realized that the radio was tuned to a
Christian station. I wanted to change it but my hands were a mess. So I
decided to finish that side of the pool and then change the station.
I could
not help but to listen to the radio as a man was preaching on John 8. He
explained that there were a group of Jews who “had believed” in Jesus (v. 31)
to whom the Lord said, “If you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples
of Mine; and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (vv.
31-32). The preacher showed how important that word “if” was. He said, “The
word of God is determinative. What a person does with the Bible reveals his
relationship with God. If you listen to the Bible, it shows you belong to
God. If you don’t listen to the Bible, it shows you don’t belong to God.”
(The reason I know what he said is that by this time I had stopped scrubbing
and started writing down what he was saying—I later wrote this in the flyleaf
of my Bible.)
But the
punch line came when the preacher showed that these same Jews who “had
believed” in Jesus were shown to be unbelievers. In verse 44 of John 8 the
Lord said to them, “You are of your father the devil, and you do the desires
of your father.” Then my life came to a glorious moment of understanding. I
realized that I had always believed the facts of Christianity, but had never
submitted my life to the Lordship of Christ! So I did. Right then, right
there, I submitted my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and His Word.
That day,
everything changed. I had new desires, new hopes, and a new hatred toward
sin. The facts of Easter and the cross on which Jesus died were transformed
from facts to faith. I began to love and fear the Lord that day and I have
found Jesus to be more than satisfying.
As for
the divine irony, the preacher turned out to be John MacArthur. And through
an amazing set of providential circumstances, I am now serving on Dr.
MacArthur’s staff. That God would save me, call me into ministry, and allow
me to serve in such a wonderful church is nothing short of a miracle.
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