Be The Fruit

How God Transformed Me.

by Bill Blair on 17/05/08 at 8:58 pm

Through most of my early adult life I was very cynical about Christians and the church. I thought all Christians were hypocrites and all churches wanted to do was collect money so they could build bigger buildings. I did not discount Christianity entirely, however, but I thought all religions were basically the same. I thought all people were praying to the same God, so I thought there had to be more than one way to get to heaven. All of this began to change when I prayed to receive Christ as my Lord and Savior.

I first prayed to receive Christ in August of 2002 at my grandfather’s funeral. My grandfather had been a minister at a time in his life, and during the eulogy the preacher said he could not end the service without asking the question my grandfather would ask. The question was: Are you ready? He said, “If you were to die today, are you ready to go to heaven?” The preacher said that to go to heaven we needed to accept Christ as our savior. That day, I prayed quietly for Jesus to save me.

I felt somewhat different after that day, but my life did not take on a drastic change. Although I was not immediately changed, I was forever changed. During the next three years I slowly started to become interested in the things of God. I began to attend church and read the Bible. The things I once thought were foolish and disliked, I began to like. The Bible says that the things from the Spirit of God are foolishness to the man who is unsaved (1 Cor 2:14), and I can see that this is true. What I once was cynical about, I became interested in.

During the first three years that followed my prayer, I began to see and understand how so many people struggled with brokenness. It became clear to me that no matter how good some people had it, and how nice some were that everyone had some struggle with sin. I came to understand the truth of what the Bible proclaims when it says that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) As I learned more about God, I began to understand that when I prayed to receive Christ that day, I did not find “a way” to heaven, but I accepted the “only way.” I learned that Jesus is the only way. For the Bible says, “there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

During that period of time, I was learning about Jesus, but I did not experience a drastic life change until I was baptized in September of 2005. I was baptized one day along with my wife, Jennifer, and my oldest daughter, Allison. We were baptized during a “big baptism” service that our church holds every year. What happens at this service is the pastor teaches the significance of baptism then invites any believers who have not been baptized to come and be baptized that day. I was extremely nervous during the whole service, because I felt compelled to answer the invitation to be baptized that day. I was so nervous that I could only grunt, “I am going” to my wife and head down the aisle when the pastor made the invitation. I did not even know my wife and daughter were coming until they showed up back stage a few minutes after I was back there. It was a very special day for us.

After we were baptized, things really began to change for us. First, we became members of our church. Next, we started going to a weekly Bible study. Later we began helping out in the pre-school area. We then volunteered at the 2006 baptism service to help back stage helping people with robes and towels. In early 2007 we began hosting our own bible study. All of these events add up to life transformation.

It is clear that my life was changing quickly after I was baptized, but the most drastic changed happened in the fall of 2007 when I became a student at Southern Seminary. Five years after I first prayed to receive Christ as my savior and only two years after I was baptized, I began seminary with goal of one day entering full-time ministry.

A life that was marked by cynicism and disbelief has been transformed into a life of total belief. I went from a dislike of Christians and the church to wanting to be a leader among them. God has truly transformed my life. God took me, a cynic, and brought me to seminary. Sometimes, I wonder how it happened, but I know that through God that anything is possible.

Have you ever thought that Christians are hypocrites or that all religions were the same like I did? There are some hypocrites inside churches, but what they represent is not what being a Christian is about. Do you ever feel the way I did?