|
I was raised in a "traditional" church setting, with a greater emphasis on tradition and ritual than on faith and following. This traditional upbringing provided me with a religious foundation, but no personal connection with God or Jesus. This faith was duty, performance and guilt based with little peace and joy. The idea was, if I said my prayers and completed the course of study required by the church, then my salvation was secured. A personal Jesus was never mentioned, only a belief and following of the church and its teachings. For me, church was cold, dead and boring. At this time, I was a typical teenager, struggling with temptations and defining who I was and what I believed. In my teen years I began to question the teachings of the church when compared to the Bible on which I was told it was based. The more I examined what I was being taught, the more inconsistencies I discovered. This left me with a shaky foundation as the bricks of my faith began to crumble and fall away. Thankfully, the Lord had a plan in mind, and that plan was delivered through the heart and words of a beautiful blonde.
In April of 1977, the Lord brought a beautiful, young lady into my life whose words triggered a spiritual earthquake. On what we could call our first date she said something to me that I had never heard: “If I do nothing else in our time together, I want to leave you with a lasting impression of Jesus Christ.” Once the shock wore off, I started to really listen to what she was saying. This started a journey of rediscovery and re-evaluation of what I knew and believed, not just in my head, but in my heart as well. She introduced me to people who spoke of a real relationship with Jesus as a person, not just a cold, stone statue or a figure on a cross. It was she and these people who breathed life into the stone, took Christ off the cross and placed Him on His throne in Heaven. In December of 1977 I surrendered my life to Christ and was baptized. On that day, Christ took His seat on the throne of my heart and this was the start of my true faith journey. As a foot note, five years later, I made that beautiful blonde my wife.
Kelley Johnson
|
