You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown!

You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown!

I believe God uses anything in our lives to drive us to him. Am I saying it was Lucy’s brother’s witness that brought me to Christ? Perhaps it was the beginning of God’s prompts. Or perhaps it was my mother’s insistence we go to Sunday school, or that we become acolytes. Or perhaps it was the urging of some of my high school classmates for me to get involved with a CYO theater group at the Catholic church, which is where I eventually came to Christ. All of those could have been, and likely were, God prompting me.

I am so very grateful to you God for building your church in my front yard! I will always welcome You in that place – in every place! You are my King and my savior and You will always deserve my praise!

The next part of my story turns ugly though. In the beginning I was on fire for Jesus, but I wasn’t really following Him. I didn’t read my Bible, I just used it to quote scripture. I didn’t need other believers. I knew that it was on me to follow Christ and not expect others to guide me – even the Holy Spirit. So, as you can imagine, I fell away.

Fast forward to my 40s, after 25 years of being unchurched, and LifePoint shows up quite literally in my front yard! Long story short, it was coming in the doors of our amazing church (and 25 years maturity) where I truly became a follower of Christ. I used to think I had time to make up for falling away, that I’d eventually set my life straight and God would accept me again. What He showed me, through the teachings of the LifePoint pastoral staff, was the difference between salvation and sanctification. I suddenly realized, while I may have lost my faith, God never lost His faith in me and it changed me!

Back to Charlie Brown – I also remember thinking back then that the Old Testament was, well, old –it had little to no relevance for me as a Christian. That’s what the New Testament was for. It was, again, through the teaching of the pastoral staff where I came to realize the Bible is the entire story of God’s redemption of the human race through Christ. And it was the verse above from Isaiah that hooked me.

When I read that for the first time, I thought, “’For unto us a child is born’ boy, why does that sound so familiar.” Cue Linus! “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11 (KJV)

It all came rushing back. He was working on me the whole time! It’s so clear now – what an amazing thing! God is at work in our lives in a much larger way than we could ever possibly imagine.