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At the age of 15 my twin brother and I rebelled and decided we would leave home and live our lives our own way. During that time, I was hitch hiking and met someone who would tell me the greatest story ever told. When I got into his vehicle, the man held out his hand, looked me in the eye, and asked, “Are you a Christian?” Here I was, long hair, earring in my ear, the look of a rebel, and yet he asked the question. Deep down he already knew the answer. I told him I wasn’t. That day I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time. When we got to my house I couldn’t get out of that car quickly enough!

For the next 5 years this man would come to our home and tell us the same story I had heard during the time in his car: Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, is the only way to escape the damnation of hell and have eternal life! Every time he visited something inside me would not allow me to refuse him to come in. A King James family Bible rested on our table. The servant of God would move the beer cans, ash trays, and trash out of the way to open that Bible and show us from the Word of God the way of salvation. There was never a time where the Holy Spirit of God didn’t take that Word and convict my heart of “sin, and of righteousness, and judgment” (John 16:8). I wanted to leave but I couldn’t.

I recall one night we were selling drugs and partying. We had young people everywhere until the servant of God showed up. He came in he took off his jacket, hung it on the back of a chair, sat down in the living room, and opened that family Bible. He told us again from the Word of God about the Lord Jesus Christ! You could have heard a pin hit the carpet! The party literally died when the Holy Spirit came in! The man showed us from the Word that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23), that “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10), that “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). He showed us from the Scripture that “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; our iniquities, like the wind have taken us away... for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities” (Isaiah 64:6,7). Then he would turn to Isaiah 59:2, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.”

Hearing the Word of God, I would literally begin to tremble! I would ask him, “Is it wrong for me to drink?”

“If you die drunk,” he said, “where will you spend eternity?”

“Hell,” was my response.

“If you die sober, where will you spend eternity?”

“Hell,” was my response again.

“Well then,” he would say, “drinking is not your problem.”

Then he would begin to tell us of the judgment of God upon those who would refuse to receive Jesus Christ. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3), “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). He would tell us of a certain man in Luke 16 who, “...died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments,.. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” He read Revelation 20:11-15, “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

The very thought of what he read to us terrified my soul! But that isn’t where he would end. He would begin to tell us we didn’t need to go there. Christ, he said, “came into the world to save sinners.” (I Timothy 1:15) “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This then is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Neither would they come to the light lest their deed should be reproved.”

I realized as he explained to me, that the reason I was going to hell was not because of my drinking, not the drugs, not the parties. If I died and went to hell it was only because of my unwillingness to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. I was condemned for choosing the darkness of sin over the light of the Saviour! Unbelief, not of the head, but of the heart. The unwillingness to repent of my sin and depend entirely on Jesus Christ to save me!

Finally when I was 20 years old, a friend of mine and I went to a local bar and picked up some drugs. That night I did 10 shots of Demerol. Messed up and no more drugs, I decided to shoot up a drug my friend had bought that I knew nothing about. I filled the needle not realizing how powerful this drug was. It nearly killed me. My twin brother came into the room and found me on the floor going into convulsions. When I finally regained consciousness, I couldn’t stand up. All I could think about was, “If I die I’m going to hell.” I pleaded with God in my heart, “Please God, give me another chance. Don’t let me die and go to hell!” I woke up the next morning shocked to be alive. For the next two weeks I ran from God, but I could not get away from His convicting presence. I would sit on my bed and cry. Here I am … cool, long hair, earring, GTO for a car, popular … crying next to my bed! My girlfriend asked me, “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.” I did know. God was dealing with my heart and I couldn’t take it. Two weeks after the drug overdose I was sitting at a friend’s house smoking a joint and drinking a beer all the while under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. While sitting there looking out the window, I said something to God I will never forget. “God, if you will send that man over tonight, I’ll get saved.” As soon as that thought went through my mind, a car pulled up in front of my home and there he was! I could not believe what just happened! I had said something to God, and I had to hear this man one more time. Again I heard what I had been hearing for 5 years, and again I fought it off. He invited me to come to church and I agreed. That Sunday morning I did what I would rarely do … I went to church. When I walked through the door I was under conviction. I didn’t hear a thing that preacher said … I had heard the gospel for 5 years. I knew what I needed to do. For the whole service I fought God. When the altar call was given, I literally trembled. Finally, in my heart, I told God that I was finished fighting Him. I would give my life to Jesus Christ. At that moment God saved my soul!

That day my life completely changed. God began a good work in me and is still changing me into the image of His Son!

Friend, have you been saved? Do you have a story to tell? Not my story but your story. If not, you can. Simply realize your condition as a sinner before God, confess it before Him in repentance, and trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

“Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (II Corinthians 6:2)

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation … for whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:9-13). Begin your “Journey of Grace” today!

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