I was raised in a well churched home. We actively attended each week and my parents were active in leadership roles. However, there was a disconnect between what I heard each week in church and how our family actually lived. I heard and knew that I was a sinner. I heard that Christ had died for my sins and that I could have forgiveness through Him. I heard that Jesus changed lives. This is where the disconnect really hit. I had not seen part three of that truth revealed. I believed that I was a sinner and that Jesus had died for sins. I wasn’t so sure at all that he really changed lives. And so, even though I was plagued by the guilt of my sin, I remained a lost person under the eventual judgement of God.
In college I met some people that revealed in their lives that part three, the changed lives part, was true. The still carried the same essential message of salvation. Their lives did not save them, Christ did. Points one and two were true. I was a sinner and Christ had died for me. I could receive him and be set free from who I was and become new. The Spirit convicted me that this compelling truth was God’s great gift to man. One cold February night in 1972 I knelt by my bed and received Christ as my Savior. I have never since been disappointed in him.