I’ve been in this thing for 40 years, and I haven’t arrived at perfection yet. Oh, Brother, are you saying that you’ve arrived, that you’re perfect? No, I’m not saying that. In Him I am the righteousness of God, and so are you. We have redemption through His blood, the Bible says, and in that redemption, we are made new creatures.Ģ Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. You see, it’s in Christ that we’re saved. Those two messages coupled together made it a lot easier for me to stay on the mountaintop. And the other was about learning who we are in Christ. One of the messages was about how David encouraged himself in the LORD. But if that’s the only message you ever get, you don’t grow very far beyond that place.Īnyway, back in those early days, the first couple of years of my Christian walk I heard a couple of teachings that helped me to overcome that roller coaster experience of being on the mountaintop and then in the valley, and back again. I realized that there was more to the Bible than just the message of salvation, though that’s a great message, a message that’s needed to get us into the kingdom. It’s the knowledge of the word that stirs our hearts.
And I began to be stirred up again like I was when I was first born again. I began to get some strong Bible training from folks who had just come out of Bible School. It was about that time that I became involved with a church that was more of a Bible School level of Christian training.
I really didn’t have much of a Biblical foundation to work with. I would read my Bible and get as much out of it as I could. My inner man was hungry for something, and I didn’t know what it was, or where to find it. One problem, as I look back with hindsight, was that I was not getting much spiritual food. I wanted to, but I just couldn’t find it. I got to where I didn’t feel that wonderful feeling I felt before. In fact, I almost dried up on the vine, so to speak. It’s a shame that older Christians would say that over a new believer, like there’s something wrong with you for being excited about God. They would look at my zeal and enthusiasm, and they’d say, Oh, he’s just a babe in Christ. It surprised me a little that other church members didn’t seem to want to do that. It all just seemed so mysterious and wonderful to me. When the church got together for campouts and other events, I wanted to talk about God and sing songs around the campfire and do stuff like that. It took me a while to figure out that everyone in that church had not had that experience. I had stumbled into a world that I didn’t know existed before. We’d sing the old hymns, and there was such a sweetness.Īll of that was new to me at age 29.
It felt so wonderful to be saved and in church.
I personally had an amazing born-again experience back in 1979. People who become born again often go through what folks in Christian circles call the Honeymoon stage of Christianity. The first couple of years of my Christian life was like a roller coaster, up down, down up, and often I just stuck in the valley. Many Christians move from the mountain top, so to speak, to the valley, as we call it, and then hope to make their way back up to the mountain top. It’s natural and normal to go from high to low in life, based on what comes our way, what we’re experiencing, and so forth. 1 Samuel 30:6 And David was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
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