What Brought me to Christ
What brought
me to Christ many years ago?
In July of 1976, I had the most important
life changing experience that one could ever have. I became a Christian. I was spiritually born-again. I invited Christ to be the Lord of my life.
It has been thirty-eight years ago, but I
still remember that day and how much my life has changed since that time. I think that a lot of people that meet me now
have little idea how much of a different person than I am. I have a tattoo on my arm that I got a few
months before this experience and that is just a glimpse of the man I once
was.
I would like to describe for you in this paper what was going on in my life that would motivate me to come to Jesus.
I
would like to give you a little bit of background about my life. I was raised in a family that went to
Church. I describe the Church as
teaching a “Social Gospel”. They would
teach a little bit about the Bible, but not the radical, life-changing,
dramatic life that Jesus taught and lived.
People would go to Church there on Sundays and perform their religious
observances, but during the week it seemed that God played little role in their
lives. So, I was casually aware of what
the Bible said, but not in a very impactful way.
I
was also raised in a home that practiced discipline and punishment. I remember being spank by my dad many times
and quite often it would cross the line from punishment to abuse. I think that since this was a part of my
upbringing, I think that I had a little bit stronger conscience than most
kids. Since my dad was so harsh; after I
graduated High School, I found a way to get out of the house and joined the Air
Force.
The first year and a half of my military experience was very adventurous to
me. I traveled from basic training in
San Antonio, to tech school in Denver to my first assignment in Goldsboro,
North Carolina. Once I was stationed
there, the military settled into more of a regular Monday through Friday
job. When I first went into the
Military I enjoyed it so much that I thought that I would stay in and make it my
career. That is one of the reasons that
I had gotten the tattoo (that, along with being tempted by a drunken
dare). After a while, the newness of my
job wore off and it became a lot less adventurous and exciting as it once
was. I began to supplement my life by
going to the base clubs to drink and try to get up the courage to ask a lady to
dance. I would drink beer by the
pitchers and would often have a lot of trouble making my way back to the
barracks.
Having
a strong conscience does not keep you from doing something wrong… but it sure
makes you feel bad afterward! I
remember feeling so bad about it the next day that I would tear up my club card
and tell myself that I wasn’t going to go back… but I remember taping it back
together and was on my way to becoming an alcoholic.
I
was also a serious smoker. I started
smoking in high school and continued in the Military. In fact, anytime I am in a meeting and they
have a short break, I remember hearing “Smoke” em if you have em”. I heard this very often in the Air
Force. I also felt that it was wrong to
smoke, but it was a hard addiction to break and I didn’t seem to have enough will
power to overcome it.
It
was during these days in North Carolina that I began to think “There has got to
be more to life than just eating, and working, and sleeping, and playing”. I felt that there had to be more to life than
what I was living. I began to start
reading some books about some religious ideas.
I was in to “Transcendental meditation (TM)” for a while. I remember going out into the woods and
humming and meditating. It was a form of
eastern mysticism that had been packaged to the American public in a more
intellectual box. This was kind of weird
to have been involved in and did NOT satisfy my search for fulfillment and
satisfaction. I personally believe that
you can go and experiment with various religious thoughts, but it will never
satisfy you like the Christian life can, and when it is all said and done – you
will still be searching for something else.
Since
I had been raised to go to Church, I decided to visit a few of the Churches
around the base. I remember finding
fault with each of them. I was like the
man with a smelly mustache and everywhere he went he kept thinking “This place
sure stinks!” not realizing that it was him that stunk. I realized later that the problem was with
me. I saw a poster on the bulletin board
on the base Chapel that was inviting people from the base to attend a weekend
retreat about the Christian life that was sponsored by a group called Campus
Crusade for Christ. I had tried a number
of other things, so I thought that I would give this a try.
It
was during that weekend retreat in July of 1976 that I had the most powerful,
important, experience of my life! During
this weekend retreat, I came to understand more of what it meant to be a
Christian. They used some diagrams to
explain the principles of the Bible and since I am more of a visually-oriented
person – I picked up on it very well.
The
circles above are what motivated me to become a Christian. The top circle shows “Natural Man”. The circle represents the person’s life and
the throne in the center shows the seat of authority. The smaller circles around the throne
represent the goals, attitudes, character, habits, relationships, activities of
our life. This shows how we are all born
into this world. We are at the center of
our lives and God is outside the circle and as a result, the things in our life
do not have the order and meaning, and purpose that we are created to have.
The next circle shows “Carnal Man” where Christ has been invited into your life,
but “self”, or “ego” is still on the throne and the person may be experiencing
some improvement in their life, but their life is not as fulfilled as it can
be.
The last circle represents “Spiritual Man” and shows that when we dethrone "self" and
allow Jesus to be the Lord, the director, the Manager of our life – then our
life will be dramatically better and we can experience His power to live our
lives. The smaller circles show direction,
fulfillment, and purpose. I made the
decision from my heart that weekend to allow the Lord Jesus to become the Lord
of my life.
I
remember coming back to the base from that retreat feeling absolutely wonderful
inside! It was like an alcoholic high,
without the hangover the next day! I
felt so good inside that I began to talk to other people about how the Lord was
helping me. Believe it or not – the Lord
immediately gave me a couple of wonderful gifts. The first one was that He took away my
addiction to cigarettes. I realized
after a week or so that I had not been smoking... the Lord had helped me
stop. No patch, no gum, so resolutions,
just the power of God. The other gift
was that I felt so good inside that I began to think of the alcohol as a cheap
substitute for the real thing. Why would
I want to go out and drink, when I felt so euphoric inside?
Within
a few short weeks, the Lord had helped me to change a number of destructive
habits. I stopped using the foul
language that was so common in high school and the military. I began to try and use normal English to
communicate what I was feeling. I began
to have different interests in music, and movies, and T.V. The people around me were absolutely shocked
by the changes. I even went back to
visit a local Church and really enjoyed it and realized that most of my issues
with the Church… were real issues with me.
A number of years later I was using poetry and song to communicate my Christian
ideas and wrote a song that I entitled “I came to You”. The song was about what led me to Jesus and
began the wonderful journey of a life with Him.
Here are a few of the words.
Lord, I came to you, when I was empty
And you said to me, that you would fill me.
Lord, I came to you, when I was hurting
And you said to me, that you’d heal me.
Lord, I came to you when I needed direction
And you said to me, to follow You.
So many places, that I might have gone.
So many people, that I might have known,
But when I found you, Lord, I found a reason for living
When I found you, Lord – you made my life brand new.
(Words by Lee Malden)
When I came to Christ, I was looking for a resolution to a violated conscience, I was looking for something more that the
day in day out routine of life, I was looking for fulfillment. I had search out a little bit in the
religious world, but when I bowed my head and invited the Lord Jesus Christ to
take up residence on the throne of my heart and life – I experienced what the
Bible calls being “Born Again”. In the
third chapter of the book of John in the Bible Jesus tells a very religious man
that unless he is “Born Again”, he will never see the kingdom of heaven.
Maybe
you have some of the very same things going on in your life that was in mine. You could find the permanent answer to every
issue of life in Jesus Christ.
Written
by Lee Malden – lmalden@hotmail.com 2020
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