My name is Mike, and this is My Story

NOTE:  I originally posted this on my other blog, but two blogs, is just too much, so I'm re-posting it here.

I grew up a religious “nothing”, and was glad.  My mom was Catholic, my dad was Lutheran, and I did not see any value in either religion, or any other for that matter.  I tried reading the bible once, but never even made it through the first book.  In my opinion, Religion was just a way to get money out of people.  There was so much hypocrisy in it that I really had no interest.  Religious people seemed to do as much wrong as non-religious people, so what made them right? 

In my senior year of High School, my stepfather died in a car accident, and I fell into depression.  I had enlisted in the Navy prior to his death, and headed off to boot camp.  In the Navy you meet all kinds of people, and since I had the opportunity, I asked everybody about their religion.  They all basically said the same thing: get baptized, join a church, give money, etc, and when you die, you might go to Heaven.  Well I liked the way I lived and the few times I ever went to church I did not care for it, so I just kept doing what I was doing.  None of the religious people had any assurance or confidence they were actually right, so why change?  I had a life, I had plans, and I did not need religion. 

Depression is not something you can just ignore, if you don’t face it, it doesn’t go away.  I got quite drunk a time or two, and the Navy sent me to counseling.  After my interview the counselor said to me “You are not an alcoholic, but you are clinically depressed.”  It’s a really good idea in the Navy to follow orders, so off to rehab I went!  A Chaplain came in one day to talk to us.  He said “It does not matter what you believe, as long as you have a higher power.  A doorknob could be your higher power, what matters is that you believe”.  Back at my bunk I said to myself, that is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.  I believe there is a God, so there must be a way to get to God.  I may be religiously ignorant, but I do know math, and 1 + 1 = 2.  If there is a God, then it only stands to reason that there would be a way to know Him.  After Rehab I returned to my ship, and laying on my workbench was a pamphlet called “God’s Simple Plan of Salvation.”  I read it and thought “that’s it, that’s the answer.  But I don’t have time for this right now,” and I threw it away.

The Navy decided to discharge me early, and I went home and got a job in sales for my mom’s company, and was good at it.  I made good money for not having a college degree, and liked what I did.  I had an opportunity to move on and work in sales for an Insurance Agency, and I took it.  I worked with a ‘religious’ guy named Steve, and started to ask him questions about what he believed just like I had done many times before.  But Steve responded differently.  He told me he knew he was “saved” and knew he was going to Heaven when he died.  Stop the press.  I had never heard of this ‘saved’ thing, and I never met anyone who said they knew it.   I asked Steve what ‘saved’ was, and how he ‘knew’ he was going to Heaven.  Steve said that He had confessed to the Lord Jesus Christ that he was a sinner, and asked the Lord to forgive him.  And he knew at that very moment that all his sins were forgiven and that he was on his way to Heaven.  He quoted this bible verse:   

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.  (1 John 5:13)

For three months I would ask Steve questions and he would answer me from the bible.  One day I asked him “Why do you always quote the bible, I want to know what you think, not what the bible says.  I don’t believe the bible”.    He smiled and said “it does not matter what I think, what matters is what the bible says.  The bible is our Judge:”

He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.  (John 12:48)

Stop.  I was going to be judged by what was written in the bible!?!?  Yes.  Not by a man or a religion or someone’s opinion, but by what was written in the bible, and I had no idea what was in that book.

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.  (James 2:10)

If I had ever broken just one of the Ten Commandments, I was guilty of breaking the whole law.  One lie, one theft, one lustful look at a girl, one thought of having something someone else had, taking one single thing that was not mine. 

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.  (Romans 3:19)

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)

It did not take long for me to realize that I was guilty under God’s Law, and that made me a sinner.  Under the law of God the penalty for sin was Hell.  That was a horrible thought, but I knew from my experience with depression that ignoring something like this will not make it go away.  This all seemed quite heartless – it did not fit my idea of a loving creator.  Steve answered my concern:

God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance: (II Peter 3:9)

God did not want me in Hell, or anyone else for that matter, so out of love He sent Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to pay for my sins Himself:

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  (1 John 4:10)

And He did something no one else had ever done: He rose from the dead:

… Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

He did this out of love for you and me:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)

Steve gave me a pamphlet, “God’s Simple Plan of Salvation”, the same one I had read two years before in the Navy.  I read it again, and came to the same conclusion; this was the answer.  It also gave the solution to the problem:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  (Romans 10:9)

This did not seem to fit any religious process I ever heard about.  Just confess and ask for forgiveness? No Baptism, no works, no money, no religious rites?  That seemed all too easy.  I was invited to church (again), and called a friend I DJ’ed with at a local college bar to see if he wanted to go along for the ride.  He was shocked that I was even considering it, but said yes.  After that service, I knew I needed what they were talking about.  I knew I was a sinner, and I was under the condemnation of the Law of God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. 

I was absolutely terrified at the thought of dying, and where I would go.  I got home and paced about the house, looking for that pamphlet, which I could not find, but I remembered what it said: Confess to the Lord that you are a sinner and ask Him to forgive you and save your soul.  I knelt down in my living room and said “Lord, I know I am a sinner, and I don’t want to go to Hell when I die.  I sure hope I don’t have to confess all my sins, because I don’t remember them all, but I am asking you to forgive me and save me.” 

That dreadful fear was gone, instantly.  There was a sense of relief, even joy, and this indescribably peace. How could I be in such desperation one minute and have complete relief the next?  What is this joy that I am feeling, this peace?  What just happened?

The answers to all these questions are found in the bible.  The last question is the book of Romans:

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:10)

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)

On Sunday, July 13^th 1989, I called upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, confessed I was a sinner and asked Him to save me.  I was not reciting some ‘magic incantation’ prayer:  These were my words, from my heart to God’s ears.  It was not what someone else told me to say, it was what I wanted to say.  I wanted the pardon that God was offering through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

I went from believing that Jesus was invented by Religion to control people and get money out of them, to personally experiencing the saving grace of God, and the pardon for sin.  I had a personal relationship now with the one whose name I cursed!

Very quickly, my old friends knew something had happened, even though I had not said anything to them. One of them asked me “what happened to you”.  I said “what do you mean,” and he replied, “you quit swearing”.  I had not noticed, but he was right: My ‘sailor’s mouth’ was gone. 

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.   (2 Corinthians 5:17)

I did not know that this was in the bible, but it certainly applied to me.  Christ had not only paid for all my sins, and forgiven me for them, but He also gave me a whole new life, one that has proven to be far better than anything I ever could have imagined!

This event was the greatest event in my life.  I now understand what Steve meant when he said “I know my sins are forgiven, I know I am going to Heaven when I die”.  I also know, just like Steve did, and you can know as well.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:17)

God is truly no respecter of persons.  Race, Creed, Color, Class, all mean nothing to Him.  You too, can have that peace that passes all understanding.  Christ is just as willing to forgive you as He was to forgive me.  You don’t have to take my word for it, you can take His. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I invite you to know the God that changed my life.