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Introduction to me
First I would like to point out that I did not find Jesus, but He found me. I know that sounds a little like I am finding fault with the question, but really that is not the case.
You see the scripture teaches us that we cannot come to Christ unless the father draws them to Himself.
John 6:44 "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day."
John 12:32 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [men] unto me."
As for this question I would say that Christ found me as a small boy when my grandmother prophesied with her hand on my head that I would preach the gospel one day, I guess I was about four years old and have no memory of it, but was told by my mother after I had been preaching for a number of years.
From age four, if that was my age, I had many instances of being under conviction of sin. I attended church occasionally as a child, we attended regularly for about three years and then the devil got a toe in the church and the flock was scattered, my mother was one of those that did not go to church anyplace after that. Of course as a child that was great with me for every time I attended I was reminded of a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. It is a sorry state of affairs that we hear very little about that in this "modern" day in which we live.
At any rate I continued sinning and yet deep down I was afraid of dying and knew I would go to hell. During my teen years I dated a couple of young ladies that were required to bring their dates to church or they could not go out with them. It seemed as if every place I turned someone was warning me about hell and urging me to turn to God. I really wanted to do just that but I had a greater desire for sin than God.
Eventually I met and married my first wife that is now in heaven with our Lord and after our first child was born I began to think about heaven and hell and as a cover for my own need, I told my wife that we needed to find a good church so our son could be taught about Jesus. We both agreed that we were not going to become Christians, but we both thought I had arrived at a wise decision.
At this point I am reminded of the old hymn, "It's Me O Lord Standing In The Need Of Prayer," for beloved it was I that needed to come to Christ Jesus.
Then came that faithful day when I arose and told my wife we were going to church. After dressing and being ready to depart, it came to mind that the only church in our town that I had any connection with was one where I had been drunk the last time I attended and shame kept me from going there. I thought of an uncle that was a Christian and lived near me and so we went with he and my aunt to their church.
They had just hired a new pastor from over in east Tennessee and he was another of those fire and brimstone preacher, no not the kind that yelled and stomped around but one that studied the scripture and preached it as directly as I had ever heard. As a matter of fact I thought my uncle must have called and told him I was coming for he preached just to me!! There were over three hundred folk there that morning and yet it was to me and me alone that he seemed to speak. Later I learned about the Holy Spirit and knew that He was the one that was speaking to my heart.
The invitation was given and if the pew in front of me had not been bolted to the floor I would have gone to the altar and probably dragged the pew with me, but I managed to escape the altar call that morning.
But the conviction was so strong that I went back to the evening service (I hope those of you that have stopped evening worship will take note of that last statement) and that night with a heavy heart and no where to turn the Holy Ghost of God arrested my soul and my wife's and we went forward hand in hand and received Christ as our Saviour. One year later I was preaching.
So you can see how I did not find Jesus He found me. In fact He drew me to Himself for many years before I allowed Him to save me.
You see the scripture teaches us that we cannot come to Christ unless the father draws them to Himself.
John 6:44 "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day."
John 12:32 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [men] unto me."
As for this question I would say that Christ found me as a small boy when my grandmother prophesied with her hand on my head that I would preach the gospel one day, I guess I was about four years old and have no memory of it, but was told by my mother after I had been preaching for a number of years.
From age four, if that was my age, I had many instances of being under conviction of sin. I attended church occasionally as a child, we attended regularly for about three years and then the devil got a toe in the church and the flock was scattered, my mother was one of those that did not go to church anyplace after that. Of course as a child that was great with me for every time I attended I was reminded of a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. It is a sorry state of affairs that we hear very little about that in this "modern" day in which we live.
At any rate I continued sinning and yet deep down I was afraid of dying and knew I would go to hell. During my teen years I dated a couple of young ladies that were required to bring their dates to church or they could not go out with them. It seemed as if every place I turned someone was warning me about hell and urging me to turn to God. I really wanted to do just that but I had a greater desire for sin than God.
Eventually I met and married my first wife that is now in heaven with our Lord and after our first child was born I began to think about heaven and hell and as a cover for my own need, I told my wife that we needed to find a good church so our son could be taught about Jesus. We both agreed that we were not going to become Christians, but we both thought I had arrived at a wise decision.
At this point I am reminded of the old hymn, "It's Me O Lord Standing In The Need Of Prayer," for beloved it was I that needed to come to Christ Jesus.
Then came that faithful day when I arose and told my wife we were going to church. After dressing and being ready to depart, it came to mind that the only church in our town that I had any connection with was one where I had been drunk the last time I attended and shame kept me from going there. I thought of an uncle that was a Christian and lived near me and so we went with he and my aunt to their church.
They had just hired a new pastor from over in east Tennessee and he was another of those fire and brimstone preacher, no not the kind that yelled and stomped around but one that studied the scripture and preached it as directly as I had ever heard. As a matter of fact I thought my uncle must have called and told him I was coming for he preached just to me!! There were over three hundred folk there that morning and yet it was to me and me alone that he seemed to speak. Later I learned about the Holy Spirit and knew that He was the one that was speaking to my heart.
The invitation was given and if the pew in front of me had not been bolted to the floor I would have gone to the altar and probably dragged the pew with me, but I managed to escape the altar call that morning.
But the conviction was so strong that I went back to the evening service (I hope those of you that have stopped evening worship will take note of that last statement) and that night with a heavy heart and no where to turn the Holy Ghost of God arrested my soul and my wife's and we went forward hand in hand and received Christ as our Saviour. One year later I was preaching.
So you can see how I did not find Jesus He found me. In fact He drew me to Himself for many years before I allowed Him to save me.
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