I was raised in a nominal Catholic home. I attended a Catholic school until the 8th grade and attended mass every Sunday during that time. The Catholic faith was not an important in my family lives. It was mainly a cultural thing. Both of my parents were Catholic and so were most people in our town. Our church attendance became more sporadic during my high school years.
After graduating high school, I became a paramedic and stopped going to mass unless there was a wedding or a funeral. I still “believed” in Jesus (or so I thought), but in name only. He was basically someone I prayed to when I needed something. I believed that as long as I was a “good” person, I would go to Heaven.
I was very self-righteous. I thought that I was a “great” guy since I was usually honest, didn’t sleep around, or do drugs. If you looked up self-righteous in the dictionary, you would have seen my picture.
I ended up getting married when I was 28 years-old. My wife grew up in a Nazarene church and rebelled against her conservative upbringing. About 6 months into our marriage, my wife felt the urge to start going to church again. To keep peace in the home, I let her drag me to church. I hated every second of it. She would bribe me with my favorite restaurants after church if I sang a certain number of songs.
After about a year, my wife realized that she was a false convert and was not growing in the church we were attending – and I definitely was not. She prayed to God that she would find a church where we both would be saved.
About a week later, my wife was talking to her mom. Her mom mentioned that she ran into one of her old friends who she has not talked to for years. The friend suggested that my wife and I should check out her church. My wife’s mom did not know that my wife was praying to find a new church.
So, we checked out the new church. It was a Christian & Missionary Alliance Church (C&MA). This church was different. I started to actually enjoy church. At the same time, I went back to college. Since it was a Christian college, I had to take a New Testament Survey class (I won’t repeat what I thought when I heard I had to take it). The class forced me to read the New Testament.
Since I loved politics, someone introduced me to Brannon Howse’s radio show which had a mix of politics and Christian topics. We ended up attending one of his weekend events where I bought some DVDS. One of the talks was by Mark Cahill called Lukewarm No More.
At that point everything came together. God used the new church, reading the Bible, and Cahill’s ministry to show me that I was a self-righteous sinner who could not save myself. I repented of my sins and put faith in Jesus and not myself. My wife also got saved around the same time.
Within weeks, I became active in street evangelism and even attended Living Water’s Ambassadors Academy. God blessed me by having someone tell me about Paul Washer and other great pastors right after I got saved.
After about a year and a half of prayer and council by other Christians, we switched to a small C&MA church. We did not want to become church hoppers so we took it slow and made the decision through prayer and counsel. The other church was not bad, but it was not a good fit. Over 4,000 people attended the various services every Sunday and we felt lost there.
The new church is smaller – about 50 people. The elders will actually ask you about your prayer life, will pray for you, etc. The preaching is expository and the church does street evangelism. We have been attending there for over 2 years and love it.
The sermons point to Jesus and what he has done for us. The pastor does not compromise and is a great example. In fact, he suggested that I should check out Leonard Ravenhill’s sermons.
I am truly amazed that God would save someone like me.
Thanks for letting me share.
Note: The time frames are estimates.
