Acts 21:31 English Standard Version (ESV) And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.

If I were to tell you that this passage holds meaning to me about the events spoken of yesterday it would be confusing to everyone but me. Trying to explain myself would take two things now that did not happen then.

People would have to stop seeking their own agenda and ask me what is going on inside this head of mine. That is exactly what happened to me back then. No one asked.

All the congregation saw was what they assumed would happen next and they pushed forward with their own agenda without asking me one question about what I had just experienced.

They assumed I had confessed Christ and baptized me. Then they pushed me into a position of leadership as the president of the county Baptist Youth Fellowship. They did all this without even bothering to discover whether I was saved or not. I was not examined.

What happens to a confused youth who is treated like something he is not? He stumbles and fails and is worse off than before he met God. Meeting God is all that happened to me.

Knowing there is a God who has the power to change you does not mean you are saved.

I suffered for many years before I came to a saving grace knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ.

Now some forty years after surrendering to His Lordship I have finally come to terms with all that has transpired and know by faith what God is calling me to do.

Maturity in Christ does not happen overnight. It took some time to understand that I was maturing through the power of God and not because I was making the effort.

If I tell you that pursuing the relationship with God is not an intellectual pursuit you might understand what it means, but it doesn’t tell you how to do it.

Everyone who reads this has their own experience and their own path in their relationship with our Lord. Similar goals but with different gifts and talents. We are not the same and we should never try to shape others to be just like ourselves. Jesus is Lord and the Master of our universe, He gets to make those decisions.

Having the abiding presence of Jesus Christ is the saving grace knowledge of Him.

Do you know Him that way?

Acts 16:30-31 English Standard Version

30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

An event happened to this jailer that brought him to a point where he asked the vital question and received the simple answer. Simple answers are always best when the lost ask that vital question.

My moment was much different than the jailer’s. We all have a moment when we can see a need for change especially when we feel helpless to achieve it on our own.

My older brother was removed from the family because of violent unacceptable behavior. Mom and dad had lost control over his behavior. He was 16 and I was 8 at the time.

Eight years later I found myself falling into the same pattern of uncontrollable anger. I had no control over my anger. I didn’t even know why I was angry all the time. I was concerned that the fate of my brother would fall on me next.

One Sunday at the altar call I found myself praying my first ever prayer to a God I did not know and did not understand. I was not even sure it was a prayer.

“I don’t want to be like this.”

At that moment my hand went up and my anger drained away from me and has never returned.

Understand this event happened sixty years ago. I am only left with vague recollections of the feelings I had in that moment. My analytical mind has tried to understand all the implications of that moment and I am reconciled to the fact that I did nothing more than open up my heart in that moment and say what I really felt. God did the rest.

I didn’t understand how it happened or why it happened, I just accepted that it did happen.

I did not know what was going to happen next, what to expect, or what to do. All I knew was that God showed Himself capable of causing a change in my attitude through no will of my own.

I have learned much about this God that loved me enough to do that for me over those sixty years and I have come to this point where I must ask this of you;

Can you honestly open your heart to God and see what He might do for you?