1st Writing Assignment

This semester I am taking a Christian Missions class. The instructor for this class is Dr. Greenham. He is from South Africa and seems to be absolutely infatuated with the Gospel. As you sit in his class, you begin to realize the great zeal he has for the glory of God and for the exaltation of the name of Jesus. This, in turn, also makes him yearn for the salvation of people because the salvation of people glorifies God and exalts Jesus! 

Dr. Greenham's first assignment for all of us was to write a one page paper about our conversion. This assignment of his was not to be graded but was to serve in making sure that each one of his students had a story. He did not want to assume that all of his students were saved just because they were in seminary.

I am thankful that he issued this assignment. It was a joy to meditate and write about what God did in my life when I was a freshmen in college. He adopted me into His eternal family and for that I am forever grateful.

Here is My Story

The first time I walked an aisle to pray a prayer that had to do with asking Jesus into my heart was when I was in the fourth grade. This, however, is not the time that God saved me. I went on to live my life in such a way that made it clear that I was a child of the devil (1 John 3:10). I was walking around as a professed believer in Christ but in reality I was dead in my trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Scripture declares that there is no condemnation for those in Christ (Romans 8:1) but I was not in Christ. I continued to profess Jesus all the while living a life of complete rebellion to the things of God all the way through my senior year of High School and the summer leading into my freshmen year of community college. Then something changed.

I made it to college and I had already been told about the specific girl that I ought to pursue. I began hanging out with this young lady and attempting to get to know her. A few weeks into getting to know her, I learned that she was going to church by herself. In an attempt to impress her, I asked if she would mind if I joined her in going to church the next Sunday morning. She said that she would love that. So, here I was pursuing her and using church as a means to do so.

I began attending church with her and going to all the different types of college ministries that were on the campus as well. I started picking up the Word of God to read it for myself in my dorm room. The Holy Spirit, through the reading of the Word of God, began convicting me of the sin that I was in. I was led to an awareness of the deep depravity of my soul and my need for a Savior. The Holy Spirit began leading me to repentance and to believing upon the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. I am not sure as to the exact moment that I was born again from above through the supernatural work of regeneration. I just know that the Spirit of God began leading me to more and more repentance and faith in Christ Jesus.

So, with that being said, I have no idea to the specific time of my regeneration during my first semester of college, but I know with all of my heart that the first semester of my freshmen year the Holy Spirit brought about a conversion. I was no longer the man that I was when I walked onto the campus that August. I was a new creation in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit was beginning to conform me into the image of Jesus Christ.

Do you have a story?

Ephesians 1:3-4

“In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.”