It Happened One Fall

It was the fall of 1962.  It was the time of the Cuban Missle Crisis.  Marilyn Monroe was found dead.  John Glenn orbited the earth and believe it or not the Beatles were turned down by Decca Records.  I am sure much more took place that year, but one thing is sure a "dead" nine year old boy was made alive in Christ by the grace of God. 

The journey had started that summer.  I was blessed to be born into a family that believed in God, loved His Word and trusted in His Son.  Back in those days the church was the center of social life in the community.  Everything revolved around church it seemed.  I thought everyone went to church. 

As fall rolled around several of my friends had made public their decision to trust Christ.  I had not.  As a matter of fact the reason I had not is because I had not trusted Christ.  Oh, I had been encouraged to "join the church," but (and I don't remember why) I had not. 

I remember this one Sunday when I came to the point of wanting to do something about it.  On the way home from church, sitting in the back seat of a Pontiac I told my parents that I wanted to be saved.  When we got home my mom and dad talked with me, we prayed and then called the preacher.  We arranged to meet him later that afternoon before the evening church activities. 

As I sat in the office with my pastor, he took his Bible and explained to me how to be saved.  Old Bible verses that I had learned as a "Beginner" and "Sunbeam" began to come to life.  We went down that Roman Road right in the middle of Monroe, GA and there that afternoon I trusted Christ as my Savior. 


I was not delivered from a life of wreckless abandonment or debauchery.  I didn't have a drug habit (other than being drug from this to that by my parents).  Yet, I needed the same forgiveness, the same mercy and the same grace as if I were, because (bottomline) I was a dirty rotten sinner separated by my sin from a Holy and loving God.

That afternoon God reached down into my heart and saved me.  He performed a miracle in my heart that will last for eternity.  I was "dead in (my) tresspasses and sins...but God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He has loved (me)...made (me) alive together with Christ" and by grace I was saved.

I remember standing before an excited church that night crying like a baby.  I remember standing in line the next day when moving from from one class to another telling my friends (although I don't remember their reaction).  I remember my pastor discipling me and a few others that had been saved.  I remember the day I was baptized.  A word to the wise: don't let your kid get baptized in brand new jeans.  They hold water and lots of it and water is heavy.  They almost needed a crane to get me out of the baptistry.

Thank God for His grace to that nine year old boy, because adolescence was only a few years away.  The age and dawn of stupidity, pride and arrogance.  Just as quick as the Spirit of God can fill and flood your life, the flesh can quench, grieve and thwart the Spirit's work and carnality can set in and you can become deaf and dumb to the things of God.  That is the way it was for me.  I was in church every Sunday.  I was in every program and activity that we had.  I repented and retreated, rebelled and broke God's heart.  Everytime He took me back and forgave me.  There were times of doubt, but everytime I look back and believe that God saved me on that fall evening of 1962.  I did not understand much, but I didn't have to.  I did not have to do much for He had done it all. 

Looking back over the years I can see His hand of faithfulness and protection.  There is a lot I did not do, but there is a lot I did do.  However, it only takes one sin to make one a sinner and only one Son of God to die for one's sins to open the door to a relationship with God.  Thank you, Father for Your marvelous gift of grace not only in salvation, but in day to day life.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see."