Lost-n-Found

[Swanny]

Since I'm new here I thought I'd see if folks were willing to share a bit about the circumstances that led up to their being made alive in Christ, and also some specifics on how/what following Him and taking up our cross has cost us so far in our lives up to this point.

Thought it would be a great way to get to know folks. I'll be planning on putting my scoop in the pot here soon. Looking forward to reading yours.

Perhaps this has already been done recently? If so, can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks!

[Cato]

We had an old post on the old site about our testimony. But with so many new people, this would seem an excellent idea.


I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore....

Raised in a Christian home with Godly parents. I accepted Christ early in life, but completly failed to understand Lordship...the daily walk thing. Married at 20. No spiritual foundation for marriage. Wife had an affair and ran off at age 25.

Humiliated before friends, family, church, and community (real small town). But God used this to bring me to see my need for a relationship with Him. For the first time in my life, I began to seek to know Him, to learn about Him, and to talk to Him, on a daily basis. I'm now 53, been married to a beautiful Christian woman for 23 yrs, and have one child. God has put the pieces of my life back together in a way I could never have imagined. He has been gracious, merciful, and loving to me.

What's your story?


Cato

[Swanny]

Hi Cato, typed my story up earlier this morning. Not too much different than yours in some regards -thanks for posting it!


I grew up in an enviroment where I heard truths from the Bible taught in school and in church, but salvation almost always was referenced by folks as something that happened 'back when I was little' while discipleship and getting serious in following Christ was another separate event that typically happened later in life with many, but not all. So I remember a few times when I was 10 or 12 repeating a prayer someone from the front was telling us to say. But having just watched a couple scary movies about someone's ideas of the end times, I was probably more concerned about obtaining eternal fire insurance..."children died, the days grew cold, a piece of bread could buy a bag of gold....I wish we'd all been ready". Anyone remember this tune? Life went on as 'normal'....got married in '89 to my high school sweetheart...did the church thing, had a couple of kids (spent an ungodly amount of time bowhunting too).

Everything seemed to change when I got sick in 1998/99 with some illness that a handful of different docs couldn't put their finger on...John's Hopkins Hospital included. Initially I lost 8 months of work (self-employed in the home-improvement business), was in bed up to 20 hours a day, sometimes I was so bad I couldn't even take the lid off of a milk jug. Had lots of time to think seriously about the Bible and all the stuff I was taught as a kid. Ended up seeing alot of baggage that I had to sort through and let go in order to do justice to my own accountings of Scripture and the truth that I was seeing I missed (or misunderstood) when I was growing up.

Looking back, I can't really tell exactly when I went from death to life in Christ - especially since my upbringing kept me from alot of grief and foolishness that potentially could of ruined me morally and physically. No radical outward conversion like many, I suppose. But I do see a sense of radicalness in that the Lord used my illness to create a desire for Him unlike I'd experienced before. This life wasn't MY life with Christian trimmings and decorations intersperced here and there. I slowly began seeing where I was playing the part of a typical 'American Christian' - Christ being a 'spoke in the wheel' instead of the hub and center bearing that the entire wheel spun around. Sometimes growing up in a 'Christian' household can be more dangerous than one expects it to be, but as I see it now, nothing can thwart God's plans that He decreed before the foundations of the world. I'm in constant desperate need of His grace and mercy found only in Christ Jesus....my current health status is really a gift of grace, a means of grace to keep my focus where it ought to be.

So I still bowhunt, but am more aware of how it can become idolatry, if unchecked. I'm learning how to make Christ my pursuit in whatever I do - whether it's being concerned for the spiritual welfare of my customers, being concerned about the sanctification of my wife (Eph. 5), or laying off my fleshly desires that want to jump in the driver's seat so often. My brothers and sisters in Christ have played a key part in my life in the pursuit of not letting things that matter most be at the mercy of those that matter least. Life is short...I want to boast only in the Cross of our Christ and see others experience the joy of knowing and understanding Him.