Higher Calling in Christ

I just finished a course called Foundations of Evangelism. A part of that course study is to write your story. Then. How. Now. Basically, what my life was like back then–before Jesus happened to me; how Jesus came into my life, and what life is like now that I have Jesus in my life.

What do you do when you don’t remember a time in your life that you didn’t have Jesus? My own children could ask this question. We raised them teaching them about Jesus and including Jesus in our everyday lives.

Some people have amazing stories of redemption. Should I feel like my story is “less” because I don’t have that “boom” moment to tell about? The answer is unequivocally no. I know, without a doubt, that my life has been better because of Jesus. All it takes is a moment of observation and reflection to see this.

I am sitting here pondering how I am going to write my story using the model of then, how, now. Am I overthinking this? My story should be natural and short. I am a talker and I stink at summarizing. This is going to be harder than I thought.

When I was child, I was curious about who God is and why Jesus had to die. I heard about these things from the occasions that my family attended church. My family was not a die-hard church attending family, but we did attend on holidays and there was always Vacation Bible School during the summer.

At age 10 we moved to New Mexico. We only lived there for a short a time, but it was long enough for me to get to know my next door neighbor and her family. They were different than my family. They attended church every time the doors were open and they had time with God, as a family, at home–reading the Bible and praying. I had never seen that before. I wanted to be like them.

I can’t explain what it was about them that attracted me to their lifestyle, because I was 10 years old and didn’t really contemplate the deeper things of life. My mother bought me a Bible and I began to read it on my own and asked my mother if we could go to church more often. I accepted Jesus as my Savior and was baptized.

Fast forward to 5 or 6 years later. I recommitted my life to Jesus because I felt like I was old enough to truly understand that walking with Him required one to count the cost of following Him. I started to truly see God’s hand at work in my life in a way that I had not really noticed before (probably because I was more mature and was looking for it).

Honestly, I cannot remember a time when I didn’t lean on Jesus, or cry out to Him. I do remember times in my life when I would thank Him for being with me and confessing to Him that I don’t know what I would do without Him.

My greatest desire is for others to feel that joy and peace that I have. I want them to feel His awesome presence and be able to lean on Him. When we are going through hard times we need someone to lean on. We need someone that knows us, truly knows us, and cares for us deeply–someone who will tell us the truth, even if it hurts, because they want nothing but the best for us. That person is Jesus.

God is the Creator of the whole universe. He set everything into motion. There are laws and rhythms that must be followed for everything to run smoothly. Because He loves us He set up principles for us to follow. We don’t always follow them and that separates us from God. Even though we feel like we are good people and hope that God would take that into consideration, the law is the law. But, He didn’t leave us just standing here guilty and condemned. He sent His Son, Jesus, to take our punishment. Imagine standing in a court of law and the judge giving the sentence out, but someone steps up and says, “I will take their punishment for them.” That is what happened.

Jesus paid a debt that He didn’t owe. I owed a debt that I didn’t pay, because Jesus paid it for me. I owe Him my very life. So, I give my life to Him every day. And every day He makes my life better and better because He is in it.

How do I tell that in three minutes? I am so not good at this evangelistic thing. Let me tell you though, I am ready to talk about my Jesus anytime, anywhere, with anyone.

Disclaimer: until I figure this thing out you may have to give me more than three minutes of your time.

So, who is Jesus? We will look into that next week. In the meantime…

By His Grace,

Momma Birdy