Attention all creation! What a great day it is to glorify an awesome God who has been so good to us all. As Psalm 47: 6 & 7 says, “Sing praises to God, sing praises: Sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: Sing ye praises with understanding.” And He is so worthy of all my praises just because He is God. And oh, how I love Him because He made a way for me to become one of His Kingdom children. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.
When I was converted on October 14, 1979 and became a new member of the body of Christ, it was a glorious day! The Lord had been drawing me for some time but finally, as a member of the US Air Force stationed in Germany on a 3-year tour, I began to respond to the conviction in my heart and became increasingly condemned for the life of sin that I had led. I was in terrible spiritual shape and knew I needed help but didn’t quite know how to go about getting it. Because of God’s amazing grace and perfect timing, this all occurred just as I was preparing to return to the United States. On my first Sunday back in the country I went to church for the first time in many, many years. On that day the preacher spoke about a man named Zacchaeus (Luke 19: 1-10). This sinful man desperately wanted to see Jesus who was passing by, but because he was small and the crowd was large, he wasn’t able. Not to be denied, he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed up in a sycamore tree. As Jesus passed by, something glorious happened. Our beloved Savior stopped, looked up directly at Zaccheus in the tree and said “Make haste and come down, for today I must abide at your house.” Zacchaeus joyfully accepted the Lord’s heavenly invitation and repented of his wrongdoing. Jesus then told Zacchaeus “This day is salvation come to this house … For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
As I sat in the church pews listening to this powerful sermon, all the while my soul silently screaming for help, the living Word of Almighty God touched me in an incredibly deep and profound way. I knelt to the ground and began to cry greatly from sorrow for the life I had lived and the burdens of sin that were crushing my heart. And it wasn’t just sorrow, but a godly sorrow. It was during those sobbing, repentant tears that Jesus forgave my sins and, just as He did with Zaccheus, He came to abide with me that day! And what a happy day it was as I received a heart transplant from the Great Surgeon who masterfully removed my stony heart of sin and replaced it with a new heart of love.
After the throes of such a powerful conversion were complete, I stood up. I cannot even begin to describe the level of humility, joy, peace and love that I felt at that moment, not only for God, but for all mankind. I was a changed man and there was an immediate confirmation in my spirit that I would no longer do the things I used to do. And oh, how happy I was! What I had just experienced was not of this earth. My soul knew it had just been touched by God! Truly I could testify to the words of the prophet Jeremiah who said, “I will put My law in their inward parts and write it in their heart and will be their God and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me from the least of them unto the greatest of them.” (Isaiah 31: 33 & 34)
I take this time to share my conversion with you because it was one of the most precious events of my life and I am blessed each time I recall how it happened. I also refer to this because I want all of you to passionately remember and joyously bask in the glory of your “first touch” as well. Take the time to recall the beauty of that heavenly connection. And though you may not have had a “Damascus Road-type” experience (Acts 9), I can declare to you that however and wherever it happened for you it was just as special and just as precious. Because of God’s love for you, when you sincerely repented a divine change from above came over you. And when this happened there was a great celebration in heaven. Luke 15: 10 says, “Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” So shouldn’t we celebrate as well, even at the remembrance of it?
Why does a humble repentance cause such joy in heaven? Because Acts 3: 19 instructs us to “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” God has designed and allowed true repentance to result in conversion. And conversion not only means changed, but it means to turn back, turn to, turn around, return, recover, restore. In other words, God has miraculously placed you back in the type of intimate relationship with Himself that He intended for you from the beginning of time.
Unfortunately there are times, even long periods, that we become complacent about our relationship with the Lord. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God and sometimes along our life’s journey we all need a refreshing encounter with our Creator, a current touch encouraging the soul or the renewal of a crushed spirit which has lost its way. As with the story of the prodigal son’s repentance and reinstatement (Luke 15: 11-24), our loving Savior, Jesus Christ, is always there ready to receive your broken heart’s sincere sacrifice and humble plea. He is ready to put a royal robe on your shoulders, a regal ring on your finger, sanctified shoes on your feet and to prepare the fatted calf for the celebration of welcoming you home.
Whoever you are and wherever in the world you may be as you are reading this, if you have not had this experience or need to re-experience this glory, know that God unconditionally and unequivocally loves you. And He loves you so much that He gave His Only Son to die in your place so that you can enjoy eternity in the peace and love of His Divine Presence. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3: 16 & 17)
Beloved ….. He’s waiting ….. for you.
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