My Spiritual Birthday
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and this week is a spiritual milestone!
You see this week 54 years ago (in fact, yesterday) I opened my heart to Jesus and asked Him to be my Lord and Savior. I was only 15 years old and I’d heard about Jesus all my life; I mean, I grew up singing Christian hymns with my family, we talked about Jesus all the time, I regularly attended church. But it wasn’t until on a chilly November day during a church weekend retreat when the Spirit finally opened my eyes wide. I remember it so well; sitting on the hard floor of a camp meeting hall, listening to the speaker talk about the gospel. But strange thing, he had his Bible opened to the Old Testament. I thought that was odd. Isn’t the gospel in the New Testament? But the speaker proceeded.
He asked us kids to measure our lives up against the 10 Commandments as he read them aloud. Okay, I thought, I can pass this test with flying colors. So he began reading: “Let’s start with ‘Thou shalt not steal?’” Okay, I’m sitting there and I couldn’t think of the last time I actually stole something, but I knew I was guilty of stealing answers off of a friend’s biology exam; for that matter, I seemed to constantly be stealing the spotlight from others. Then the speaker went on, “How about ‘thou shalt not lie?’” Yikes! The Bible nailed me with that one: I knew I had a tendency to fudge the truth and over-exaggerate; I never would’ve admitted that it was lying, because everyone did it. But that didn’t excuse me. The speaker continued, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” I thought I passed that one, but then he explained that Jesus said whoever lusts after someone in his heart has inasmuch done the deed. Whoa, did he have me on that one. But I was really challenged by the next command. He said, “kids, measure yourself up against this one: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Oh man, there was no way I can pass that one. I idolized Coke; I couldn’t go a day without having a Coke or two or three of them. I idolized sports—being named captain of our volleyball and lacrosse teams meant everything to me. It occurred to me sitting there, that we all have our American idols, whether it’s a hobby, a boy or girl friend, or even what we see in the mirror.
By the time the speaker was done, there I was, sitting there on the camp meeting floor a lying, stealing, adulterous idolater! You think that is an over-exaggeration? You might think so. But Jesus said, “you break one law; you’ve broken them all.” His point? God is holy, and you are not. Boy, did that bug me. Why in the world would God give us a bunch of commandments that He knows very well we can’t keep? Then, ‘bing’ – a light bulb went off. Failing God’s righteous standard showed me how much I needed rescuing. And so I began to see that’s why God sent Jesus. Jesus kept the 10 Commandments; He lived the perfect life, even though He knew I couldn’t and wouldn’t ‘cause I’m a sinner. I should’ve been the one on that cross, but Jesus took the rap for me. And if I would accept His death on the cross as a substitute for my own death; in other words, if I would but embrace Him as my Savior, my rescuer God would have no more anger left for me, a sinner …only forgiveness; only mercy.
I wasted no time in accepting this amazing gift and may I encourage you to do the same, if you’ve not already embraced Jesus as Savior. Just go to our homepage at joniandfriends.org and click on the “Good News” tab. Read more about the gospel, and even use the prayer at the close if you’re struggling Then, please let me know about it right there on our Good News page. Come to know Jesus at joniandfriends.org.
© Joni and Friends
