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