Then You Must Drop Everything And Find Out!

                He had vomited on the bowling alley restaurant counter....and I had to clean it up. It was probably between ten and eleven in the evening. I'm guessing....for it was almost sixty years ago. I helped him to the car....a red VW.....Bug....and he drove the four or five miles towards home....because I did not yet have my license. We had both consumed too much alcohol. I was resting in the passenger seat....on the highway....my eyes closed....when I heard the VW's horn. My friend's head was buried in the center of the steering wheel....where the VW Bug horn was located. I grabbed the steering wheel....and somehow steered off into a parking lot....while waking him up enough to tell him to step on the brake....and then I carried him up a steep hill...to his parent's house....and dumped him off....and then walked home.
                That could be story number one.....many more would follow. God has surely had mercy upon the lowest of the low.  I came across some old letters that I had sent my mother while in the army....this back in 1970. At the top left hand corner of every letter.....written diagonally across the tip of the corner....was the word.....or the name....Jude....and it was underlined. I wore an attractive St. Jude medal around my neck....gold....with blue on it....this from about nineteen....to somewhere in my early twenties....until I lost it....probably while in a scuffle of some sort....while inebriated. St Jude was....and probably still is....the patron saint for....hopeless cases.....and that would be me....and that is why I wore it....for I knew no other way.
                When exactly was I born again? I don't know. It was sometime between.....1982....and oh....1995 maybe? I was an evangelizing professing Christian over those years....but I'm not sure if I had been born again. Maybe....maybe it was early....maybe not. John Wesley and George Whitefield both would admit that they were well into their ministries....before they were actually born again. With many Christians.....there comes a time....when they see something in the gospel....something about themselves....and it may not be that they realize that were not at that time born again....but more that they saw the ugliness and the horror of their own sin....and the glory of the cross of Calvary....all this for the very first time....at least to this degree....and in the unspeakable joy of the moment....they know the ecstasy of knowing that all of their sins....past and present and future....were paid for.....in blood.
               It was in the late 1980s....say 1986 to 1990.....and I was a very talkative professing Christian....and at work....through that constant....witnessing....I led seven men into saying a sinner's prayer. They would say the prayer....and I would call other Christians around....and we would welcome them as brothers in Christ....and that was that. Who's next? I had no idea what I was doing....as I did not have a full understanding about salvation. I only hope that I did not harm these men. There was another man....a black man....about six foot three....and somewhat intimidating....who I only knew by name. He came to me one day....he came to me because I was this big mouth born again Christian. He put it right out there on the line....he was going to drug rehab for the second time. He had a wife and two children....and was in jeopardy of losing his job. He needed to know Jesus. I prayed with him....and he went to rehab....and eventually became a deacon in his church....and today he writes on the Internet of the glory of Christ....just like I try to do.
                Whether you have been a Christian for only six months....or have been a Christian for sixty years....there must have been a time when your heart was regenerated....when the dead heart began to beat....and when you then could see the gospel....and your need for the gospel...and you believed unto salvation! If you are not 100% sure that you have been....born again....born anew....born a second time....from above....then drop everything and find out! Googling....'John MacArthur....born again'....or....'R. C. Sproul....born again'....or....John Piper....born again'....would be a good place to start.