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Article Archive |
2007
I Tell You the Truth
by Jim Morris
“Don’t ever bring THAT back into my house again!” cried mom while pointing at my Bible.
The last Bible study we had did not go well at all. In fact, ever since I had become a Christian I could not help but try to convince my mom and dad to accept Jesus on His terms. As I persisted in bringing God into our conversations, they were beginning to view me as an enemy.
How could I explain to my parents the joy I felt when I discovered that the Lord’s will could be understood (Ephesians 5:17) by poor, simple folks like myself (1Corinthians 1:26)?
By the time I was 14 years old, the hate, arrogance, and divisiveness produced by “ religious people” made me despise Christianity. “Everyone says something different,” I had raged. “Who can really know the truth about Jesus anyway?” I had contended. “Christianity is just a big game for greedy, religious con artists!” As a result, I had lived the next decade as I saw fit.
Fortunately, God humbled me for my own good. After stripping me of the self-reliance that I had used as a crutch, He took me by my hand to walk with Him by faith. That saving faith came by listening to and obeying His Word (Romans 10:17).
After meeting Jesus I knew that I was undone. He was powerful. I was powerless. He was holy. I was a sinner. And yet, the most amazing thing of all, He loved me even though I had been His enemy (Romans 5:6-11). I suddenly realized that Jesus died on the cross for me. He prayed on the cross for me, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). As His love filled my heart I knew that Jesus was to be “My Lord, and my God!”
I believed what I had read of Jesus (Mark 16:15-16). I repented of my wayward life (Acts 2:38). I confessed His name before others as my Lord (Matthew 10:32-33). I was immersed into water to imitate His death, burial and resurrection so I could share His suffering and salvation (Romans 6:3-5). Now I live to be transformed into His image (1 Corinthians 3:18).
The simple message of Jesus had separated me from my family for awhile. Three years later my parents humbled themselves to be baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:26-27). A few years later the Lord took them home to be with Him in paradise. However, the Lord has given me more parents and a larger family–“the family of God!”
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).
12-05-07
# 49
