How I Came To Christ

I’ve been wrestling for many years with where we went wrong in America.  I knew it was at some point following WWII, after the “Greatest Generation” since they were still mainly Bible believing folks, even if they didn’t follow Christ, they still knew the Bible and grew up in a world where the Judeo-Christian world view was assumed.

I became a Christian in 1994-95 you see, but have a history with the Lord a bit longer than that.  My parents raised me with no Christian teaching, and I got none in the public education system, even though by most standards the schools here where I grew up are considered excellent.  I got into drugs and alcohol (and girls) as a teen-ager, and crashed hard during my first attempt at college.  I wound up in a drug-rehab facility the day after my 23rd birthday, after having been over 5.5 years at a University of California, with no degree to show for it, and facing jail for 5-10 years.

What happened in that program was I was able to humble myself and give my life to “God” who I did not know at all, but had been barely introduced to a handful of times as a child by my aunt who took us perhaps 5 times to a Catholic church near where I lived.  That was the only “God” I knew, and it turns out He is the only one of course, but I could have gone so many other directions don’t you know!  I see now how God had his hands on me during the years leading up to that and the years following, gently bringing me to Himself and the knowledge of His Son Jesus Christ.

I still didn’t meet Jesus until some years later, in 1994 in fact, when I was going through divorce.  A friend suggested I go to a divorce recovery group that met in a church.  I said “I went to AA meetings in churches, they are safe places, yeah, I can do that.”  So I went, and gradually, as my anger dissipated, I started to hear the message of the gospel, the true gospel and was saved.  That’s been just a bit over 20 years now, and it’s been an incredible journey!

Today, my wife (my LAST wife) and I are at Hope Chapel, Hermosa Beach, and we love it!  We’re still both growing and active in our faith, we do ministry, including “For Life”, Evangelism, teaching the children and we are in a good small group with other folks in our neighborhood.  Like I said, incredible.  Right now I’m not working, but supporting my wife in Cancer treatments.  But, we’re going to come through and she’s going to be 100% Cancer free we hope and pray, Lord willing!

I have been trying to add to my arsenal of arguments about our culture today, what is wrong, where we went wrong, how we got here and so on.  I keep this blog, it’s quite extensive, with near 450 articles I’ve written.  Some are simple thoughts, some are stories from my childhood, and others are full-blown articles on the Christian faith, or expositions on the Bible, various readings and passages I’ve read and studied.

You’re not alone out here on the Internet.  We are fighting a culture that is hell-bound and doesn’t even know it!  That’s the biggest shift in our culture most probably.  We, at Hope Chapel, teach Ray Comfort’s “Way of the Master” and we preach the Law to folks who think they are “Good people”.  Personally, I still use the “Roman Road” methods, with Romans, 3:23, 6:23 and 10:13 being key verses I use to teach people what the Bible says about sin.  I tie it in to the Law if they waver or have any doubt about what sin is and whether they are “Sinners”.

So I hope you’ll take the time to read some of my articles.  Some of it comes out as rants, with a prayer.  But I’ve tried to make it so that I hit folks with truth – hard – and point them to Jesus.  It’s the only answer I know.  We live in a time where hearts are very hard, things are very dark.  But Christ’s power is a force to drive the darkness back and we know He’s already won the victory!  The rest of it is just following Him in obedience and faith, eh?

As I said earlier, I’ve been wrestling with the question of how America went so wrong for many years.  I’ve been trying to figure out exactly how and when the flame of faith was extinguished in our culture.  It’s not dead completely, certainly, but it’s looking more and more like we’re headed the way of NAZI Germany, as Erwin Lutzer argues in his fine book:  _When a Nation Forgets God_.  Knowing what happened and when is not much help really, what we’ve inherited is a mess, but folks still need the light of truth and the cultural preserving properties of solid faith in Jesus Christ.

I’m coming more and more to the opinion that our Judeo-Christian culture in America died the day LBJ passed his infamous “Johnson Amendment” in 1954.  Everything proceeds from there, taking God out of schools, an explosion of permissive culture, rampant drug use, legalization of abortion on demand, relaxation of prohibitions against various forms of sexual perversion and promiscuity, etc…

In light of all this we each must reach as many as we can for the Kingdom of God!  I’ve found the Internet to be a decent tool, and will use it as long as I can to spread truth and knowledge of the gospel.  I hope you’ll continue doing the same.  I believe firmly, as Chuck Colson used to say that we Christians are “Culture creators” and our purpose is to get out there and impact our world!  I find it incredible that any true Christian would think they are not supposed to be involved either in politics or in their culture, debating with people, using apologetics to give the defense for what they believe (and why!) to lead others to Christ, trying to save unborn babies from abortion and so on.

What it argues for is probably the fact that our churches are filled with unsaved people, folks who like to come and hear the message of salvation because it makes them feel better about themselves, but they aren’t truly saved.  Sad…  But then again, that may have been the case all through history, we only know how things are today.

For Jesus!