That's My Story And I'm Sticking To It

If you have met Jesus and Jesus has changed your life, you have a powerful story that people need to hear.  In John chapter 9, the man born blind tells his story.  “I was blind!  Jesus touched me!  Now I see!”  It’s very simple - His life before Christ; How he found Christ; The change in his life since finding Christ.  The Apostle Paul used the same pattern in Acts 26 - His life before Christ; How he found Christ; The change in his life since finding Christ.  Folks, listen, if the blind man used this pattern to tell his story and Paul used this pattern to tell his story, doesn't it just make sense that we can use this same pattern to tell our story? 

Here's my story.  I grew up in a Christian home.  My grandpa was a pastor and my family was at church every single time the doors were open.  Because my dad was also the custodian, we were also at church even when the doors were closed, so church was a big part of my life.

At the age of 5 I started attending a weekly Good News club taught by my Aunt Ruth.  I went primarily for the punch and cookies.  But every week I heard my aunt tell the same story.  She talked about how God loved me and wanted me to go to heaven but because I was a sinner and had done wrong things I couldn't go.  But she also told me that God loved me enough that He sent his own son, Jesus, to this earth to live a perfect life and then die on the cross to pay the punishment that I deserved for my sin.  He then rose again.  She said He was the only way to heaven and that if I would receive Jesus into my life, He would forgive my sins and give me a home in heaven. 

I heard my Aunt Ruth tell that story every single week but one afternoon at that Good News club as I listened to her tell that story yet again, it hit me.  Even though I knew those facts, I personally had never received Jesus in to my life.  On that day, sitting on the front porch of that house, my aunt led me in a prayer in which I received Jesus Christ into my life, asking Him to forgive my sins and to give me a home in heaven. 

I'd like to tell you that there was a drastic change in my life but I was only 5.  I was a sinner but how much sin does a 5-year-old really get in to?  I remember over the years listening to testimonies of people that were bank robbers, drug dealers and murderers who found Jesus and their life changed and I thought, “My story's kind of boring.”  So I tried to change it.  I would say, “I was a bank robber, murderer and drug dealer, but at the age of five I found Jesus and my life changed!”  That didn't seem to make sense.  That's when I realized that it took just as much of the grace of God to save me as a 5-year-old sinner as it did anyone else. 

And since that day when I was five years old and received Jesus, my life has been one that has grown regularly in wanting to know Jesus, to love Jesus, and to serve Jesus.  The Bible says in John 1:12, “To as many as received Him, to them God gave the power to be children of God even to those who believe in His name.”  Folks, listen, that's my story and I'm sticking to it all the way into eternity!