Forty Years Ago

Forty years ago it was 1971. Do you remember where you were? I was a fifteen year old kid in the Dallas area. But January 3, 1971 is the most important day in my life. Even all these years later.

Today is the anniversary of the day when I received Jesus as my savior. It was a cold Sunday night. My family had started going to a small Baptist church not far from our house. There were a group of guys that were a few years older than me that I really looked up to, Bill, Tony, Keith and Steve. (Amazing that all these years later I remember their names.) Bill had long brown hair and had this joy about him that was contagious. I did not realize it at first, but Bill was a Jesus Freak.

One night (Jan. 3) Tony was going to preach the evening service. I never went on Sunday evening but Bill and Tony looked at me that morning and told me that I really needed to come to church that night. I said that I would try. They looked at me and said that I did not need to try but I needed to be there.

So Sunday evening came along and there I was. I ended up on the back row by myself. I don't remember what Tony said, but I remember realizing that I needed Jesus. I did not walk the aisle, or respond to an invitation. Instead I prayed and told God that if He was real, to change my life. And at that point my life began to change.

No one told be to read the Word, I just had a desire to do so. And as I read the Bible began to make sense! My language changed over night. My attitude began to change.

When I went back to school the next day (Christmas break had just ended), many of my friends had began to smoke pot and mess with other drugs at Christmas time. When I told them that I had an encounter with God they said that in a few weeks I would get over it.

Well, forty years later and I still have not gotten over it and I do not plan to ever. I was not sure what had happened to me when I prayed and asked Jesus to change my life. I do now. I became a "new creature in Christ." It is what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Everyone that is a Christian has two birthdays, their physical and their spiritual. Today is mine.