Where It All Began

 Bremd. Turner, and I hit the road this past weekend headed east. We went to visit some dear friends. We ended up in my beloved hometown of Lufkin, TX. I wanted to visit meaningful sites from my past. I went back to where it all began. 

The very first site we visited was Abe Martin Football Stadium. I did not go there to relive my glory days of playing offensive defensive line for the Panthers. It was not the bright lights of a Friday night donned in purple and gold that dominated my thoughts. I pulled up to the visitor side parking area where I had a clear view of the homestands. I looked up to those stands about halfway on the fifty-yard line. I got out of the car to remember the night it all began. 

Go back with me in time. It was a Thursday night back in October of 1983. I was at the junior varsity football game with my girlfriend. It was a normal fall night for some football. I actually went to watch the game. God was up to something new. He had me in His crosshairs and I was totally unaware. To my recollection I had not considered God, Jesus, the Bible or even attending a church one single time that day or for as far back as I can remember. 

Like a deer located with a scope on a gun in a hunter's hand God had me zeroed in. I never saw Him coming straight for me like a freight train. Only the messenger was disguised as a local youth minister from North Carolina who had recently transplanted to Lufkin to work at a local church. He came to the game that night with one mission. To share Jesus with anyone God would lead him to. God led him to me. 

I sat there minding my own business watching the game and enjoying some time with Anji. I noticed a couple of guys from my school walking up the stands with an older man. I was not friends with either of those guys. They did not play football and I had little use in those days for people who were not teammates. I was a little curious when they made their way to our seats and struck up a conversation with us. It did not take long for the man, after introductions by my classmates, to get to the point. He asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks that night. He asked if I knew where I would spend eternity. I could not believe this Bible thumper was interrupting my watching the game with such a question. 

I fumbled for an answer thinking and hoping that I would go to heaven. The man's second question proved just as jolting. He asked if I were to stand at the gates of heaven and they asked why they should let me in what I would say.  I did not respond immediately. I had to think. I gave my best answer. I replied, "I treat people fairly. (a lie) I try to be good. (Another lie) 

I went on with my list of good works that I hung my hat on that were good enough to get me into heaven. I was annoyed that this guy was asking me questions I did not know how to answer and HAD NEVER CONSIDERED BEFORE. 

God grabbed my full attention when that man named Eli started explaining sin and my sinful condition. I knew I sinned. He did not have to convince me of that. God's conviction swept in. These were things I had never considered. I always thought that we got to heaven by our good works outweighing our bad works. NOT TRUE!

Ephesians 2:8-10 (NASB)
⁸  For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
⁹  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
¹⁰  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

God drew me in closer. Eli and I actually got up and left the crowd to go sit alone so he could more fully explain this message I had never heard. Yes, I heard about Jesus and His crucifixion in my childhood. That night was the first time anyone shared the gospel message with me in a way that I could understand. Nothing made more sense to me than what I heard. I know in hindsight it was God awakening my faith, taking the blinders of deception off and probing my heart to come to Him. God chose me that night. I certainly did not choose Him. He came after me. I had no interest in God on that night before Eli approached me. God never crossed my mind. I did not read the Bible and I had not been to a church service in years. None of that mattered. God had a plan for my life before the foundation of the world. I did not know it then, but I was God's workmanship. A vessel He would choose to use in His service. 

After Eli explained the gospel message to me, he asked if I wanted to trust to Jesus for salvation. The game going on below no longer held my attention. God had me. I do not recall anything else happening around me. I knew I was a sinner in need of salvation. Right in the stands with a football game happening and surrounded by other fans, I cried out to Jesus and He saved me. He redeemed me. He transformed me. He rescued me. He forgave me. He changed me. He made me a new creation in Him with the old things passing away and being made new. 

The first impression I had after Jesus saved me was RELIEF. Like a huge heavy burden of sin was taken off me. I carried that feeling through the rest of the game and walking down the ramp back to my Jeep in the parking lot after the game. 

That is where it all began for me. Standing outside the chain link fence looking in I did not recall one single game I played in that stadium. I flashbacked to the night Jesus wrote my name in the Lamb's Book of Life. He brought this rebellious and hard-hearted teenager into His fold. He tamed the young man nobody else had been able to tame in 17 years. Not my momma. Not my grandparents. Not teachers or coaches. What none of them could do in 17 years, Jesus did in about 17 seconds.

 That is where it all began. In another part of the state a young teenaged girl had been praying for her future husband three years at that point. That girl was Brenda who has been my wife for 32 years now. A pastor's wife committed to pray for me who resided in my neighborhood with her husband who would eventually baptize me. It would be her same pastor husband I would talk to a year and a half later committing my life to preach the gospel. God led me to Howard Payne where I met that brown-eyed beauty I made my wife. In subsequent years we followed God to serve as a youth ministry team, pastor, traveling evangelist, church planters, and back into pastoral ministry. We took many faith steps, saw the astonishing power of God displayed on multiple occasions and had four sons who are grown up now. 

All of it began on a fall night back in October of 1983. Out of all the sites we visited on our trip that by far was the most meaningful to me. We drove by the house I grew up in. We visited the cemetery where my grandparents, mother and sister are all buried. We drove by the first church I pastored, and the first home Brenda and I purchased. None of that mattered. Where it all began for me was in that football stadium. Every good thing in my life started right there when God adopted me as one of His own. 

I don't get back to Lufkin much anymore. I had not been there in years before this past weekend. The whole trip was worth it just to revisit that old stadium where it all began. Brenda got out of the car and took my picture with the stands in the background standing outside that fence. My whole life changed that night. I had no idea of the thrilling adventure that awaited. I'M SO GLAD TO BE A PART OF THE FAMILY OF GOD. WASHED IN THE WATER AND CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD. JJOINT HEIRS WITH JESUS AS WE TRAVEL THIS SOD. I'M SO GLAD TO BE A PART OF THE FAMILY OF GOD.