Utica Baptist Church, Utica, Mississippi

It was a Good Friday when I met Christ on a youth retreat. It was not a conversion experience that would attract the attention of a lot of people. I was a teenager, looking for some meaning in life. When Christ entered—Oh! What joy flooded my being! I joined the church which had sponsored the retreat, as did several others.

　 The next twelve months were exciting, and yet terrible at the same time. My new-found love for Christ had spilled over into my entire life, and several of my friends were very uncomfortable being around me. Part of that was definitely my fault: I assumed a "know-it-all" attitude about Christianity, though I was still only a babe in Christ.

　 A year later, when Resurrection Sunday rolled around again, I eagerly entered the worship service at the church I attended. The cover of the worship bulletin depicted a painting of a scene from inside the tomb, where death had been, and it was dark. Through the open door one could see out into the beauty of nature, where life was, to see the trees budding with the arrival of spring.

　 At the bottom were these words: "He is not here."

　The awesome truth of that grabbed me for the very first time. I realized that nothing – nothing – I had done was worthy of the horrible price Jesus had paid for me, and He was NOT THERE in the tomb any longer. I found the sins of my heart to be detestable things, and I sat there on that pew, through the entire service, weeping over my sin and His incomparable love for me.

　 Years later, having saved that worship bulletin (which I still have, by the way), I located an artist who would paint that scene for me. I have it framed and hanging on a wall in my study as a regular and visible reminder of what Jesus did for me.

　 All these long years later, the truth of what the angel said echoes through the halls of eternity: "HE IS NOT HERE; HE IS RISEN, JUST AS HE SAID!"

　 Praise His Name!

--Rocky Henriques



　

April 4 may be just another date on the calendar for you. But for me, it has a very special meaning. You see, it was on April 4, 1969, that I met the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was on a Youth Retreat to Gulfshores Baptist Assembly in Pass Christian, Mississippi, on the Good Friday-Easter weekend. I didn’t know what either Good Friday or Easter was, so I studied up before I went, sure that someone was going to put me on the spot and embarrass me. God used the World Book Encyclopedia to begin to convict me of my sin and of what a wonderful Savior Jesus is!

But I met Him as my own Savior, and I fell in love with Jesus. It was as if Jesus lifted the lid off my heart, and showed me how dark and terrible my sin was. But then He showed me how starkly beautiful His love for me is–and oh, the joy that filled my soul! Something happened, and now I know! And though I have failed Him many times since then, He has always forgiven me, and we’ve walked together since.

D. L. Moody met the Lord while working in a shoe store. He later wrote about that experience: "I thought the old sun shone a good deal brighter than it ever had before--I thought that it was just smiling upon me, and as I walked out upon Boston Common and heard the birds singing in the trees, I thought they were all singing a song to me. Do you know, I fell in love with the birds. I had never cared for them before. It seemed that I was in love with all creation." For me, when the sunset was beautiful, I believed that God had made it beautiful just for me. When I saw a rose blooming, it had been placed there by God just so I could see it. I was young and didn’t understand a lot of things about how God works, but I did believe His hand was everywhere in my life.

Why do I tell you this? Because it would be good if every once in a while, you could reach back and remember when you first met the Lord. Remember your sin, and the awfulness of it, and how Jesus has brought you into eternal life. Remember the love and hope and joy He gave you when you threw open your life to Him.

Charles Spurgeon once remembered the moment he came to know Christ: "Can you not remember, dearly beloved, that day of days, that best and brightest of hours, when first you saw the Lord, lost your burden, received the roll of promise, rejoiced in full salvation, and went on your way in peace? My soul can never forget that day . . . What delight filled my soul! -- what mirth, what ecstasy, what sound of music and dancing, what soarings to Heaven, what heights and depths of ineffable delight! Scarcely ever since then have I known joys which surpassed the rapture of that first hour."

Can you say something like that? Confess your sins to Him, trust Him to save you, and just watch what happens!

-Rocky Henriques

Recognizing our youth is important to us as a church. Healthy churches have lots and lots of noise! They have children and young people who are allowed to be children and young people, and not just miniature adults! And the future of any church is tied up with its young people.

But it's important to the young people, too. Most of us can remember when we were young, and we may have some wonderful memories from that time in our lives. I have a lot of warm memories of that time in my life, but most of them center around the time I spent at the church or with friends from the church. The Lord blessed me to have been a part of a great church family, one in which young people were encouraged to seek the Lord and get to know Him better. There were people who encouraged me personally, who were patient with my shortcomings and loved me even when I thought I was perfect.

But what I remember most was love. My home church was Forest Hill Baptist Church of Jackson, Mississippi, a place where there was a lot of love. Sure, there were problems--what church doesn't have them? But above all, what I sensed from the adults of my church was that we young people were loved, and we were worth something. They invested themselves into our lives. They spent money on us. They drove us. They prayed for us. They cried with us. They taught us.

And most of all, they loved us. Today, even though the congregation no longer meets in that building, there are young-people-grown-up-into-adults who serve the Lord in many different ways all over the world. I am in the ministry today because of the personal attention of several adults who took the time to encourage me and pray for me.

Perhaps it's because of that background that I believe that every church has a responsibility to the young people within its circle of influence. There are young people around us who need to know Jesus. The youth who attend our church need our influence, our encouragement, and most of all, our love.

So today, when you pass a young person while at church, pause just a moment to say hello and ask how they're doing. It may make a huge difference in their lives.

And they'll never forget it. They may even write about it on a blog someday.
--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com