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2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

I can tell you that is a true statement. Jesus changed my life. He gave me the things I was looking for in the world. Peace, joy, and happiness. As a teenager back in the 50s, I decided what I wanted out of life. My goal was to be a millionaire by the age of thirty- five. Remember back in the 50’s a million dollars was a LOT of money. I thought if I had money I could buy anything I wanted. I thought things was what made a person happy. Boy was I wrong. If you have money, you can buy the things of the world, but it won’t make you happy. People who take this road are NEVER satisfied. Look at the sports figures today, they are proof of that. All the millions they make, they still want more. How much money does it take to make a person happy? Answer. There is never enough. Anyway my goal was to make lots of money. Everything I did revolved around money. I would lie, cheat or steal if it meant money in my pocket. I was so involved with making money, my wife and kids came second.

My wife and I were married in 1955. In 1957 we was expecting our first child. I was excited about that. We bought all the cloths, the crib, the stroller etc. making plans for this child. After my wife carried the child full time, the child was born dead. I was angry at God. I even said God who do you think you are taking my child. I was mad, but it didn’t change my life style. I continued to strive to make money. In 1959 we were expecting our second child. Now I don’t think we can make deals with God, but I said God if this child is healthy and normal, I’ll go to church every Sunday. Now nobody knew I made that commitment. The child was healthy and normal so I started to go to church every Sunday. I was afraid if I didn’t God would take this child too. Some Sunday mornings I would sleep in and not make it to church and I would chew my wife out for not getting me up. She didn’t have any idea why I was mad. She didn’t know what I had told God I would do. Then on Sunday we always went to my mothers for dinner and if I had missed church that day, she would say I didn’t see you in church and I would stick my finger in her face and say don’t you preach to me, I don’t want to hear it. And she would stop, but the next time we went through the same conversation.

Well I could go to church and turn the preacher off. It didn’t matter what he said, I didn’t hear it, but when they gave an alter call the Holy Spirit would began to deal with me. I would be so under conviction, but I refused to give in thinking if I became a Christian I could have no fun. I would have to stop doing a lot of things I was doing like smoking, playing poker and living the life style I was living. Well I did have to stop doing those things, but I didn’t realize that Jesus would change me and give me all the things I was looking for in the world. I didn’t give up a thing. God took those desires away. I was alive for the first time. I want you to know if I didn’t enjoy my salvation, I would go back and live like I used to live. Let me throw this in here. You can’t live half for Jesus and half in the world. There is no joy in that. To have the abundant life Jesus talks about in John 10:10 you have to make Jesus your life. Not a part of your life.

Well after telling God I would go to church if the second baby was o-k I did what I said I would do most of the time, but I didn’t get saved in church. This started in 1959 and I was not saved until Sept. 8,1964. One night my wife, a friend of mine and myself was setting at our kitchen table, We was talking nothing about church or the Lord. My friend had a corncob pipe and he couldn’t keep it lit. Every time he would strike a match to light it, all I could think about was putting my hand over the burner of the cook stove and that was the way my body would feel in hell for eternity. After our friend left, I told my wife I needed to get right with God. I didn’t want to go to hell. The next day I called my mother up and said don’t it talk somewhere in the Bible about some guy in hell? She told me to go to Luke the 16^th chapter starting with verse 19 and I could read about the rich man. Now remember my goal in life was to be rich.

We had a preacher who had married my wife and me. This man not only preached the Word, but he lived it. I called my mother and told her to call Daddy Schaffer (That was what we called him) and tell him I want to get saved. You see I thought if anyone can get me into heaven he could. (Only Jesus can do that) This was on a Wednesday and he couldn’t come till Friday night. Well Friday night was my poker night and by Friday I had about changed my mind. In my heart I believe that had I said no on that Friday night that I would have been lost forever. Gen 6:3 God says And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man,

Well Daddy Schaffer came over to the house and we gathered in the living room. He said you know what we are here for and we knelt in my mothers living room and they began to pray and I began to cry. I wanted God to save me and God wanted to save me, but God wanted me to admit I was a sinner. I knew I was, God knew I was, but He wanted to hear me say it. I refused to say I was a sinner. They would stop praying and I would say keep praying. This went on for half an hour to forty-five minutes and finally I said Lord forgive me I am a sinner. And when I did that, it was like a load lifted from my body, I became alive for the first time. Joy filled my soul. As I left that house that night, I remember saying look how beautiful the grass is. Look at the sky. It was the first time I had ever really seen them. I was dead and now I was alive. It was like I had been resurrected. Well from then on things changed in my life. I wanted to go to church. I couldn’t lay the Bible down. I now had what I spent all those years looking for in the world. I had peace, joy. I was happy. My wife got a new husband. My kids got a new dad. No longer was money my goal. I was smoking two and on half packs of cigarettes a day. That habit was gone and to this day I never had another cigarette. I remember saying to myself. I am going to see how strong this God is. I put my cigarettes above the sun visor in my car and hauled them around for over a week. One day I thought this is stupid and I took those cigarettes from that sun visor and threw them out the window. God had delivered me for them. That was almost 40 years ago and I want you know that what I have (Salvation and His name is JESUS) today is so great. What I was looking for in the world I found in JESUS.

That is how I was saved and that was just the beginning. Every promised in the Bible is mine. I have found over the years that God will do what He says He will do. I want you to know that what Jesus does for me, He will do for you. Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

God will do for you what He has done for me. Today if you are struggling. If life has no purpose for you. If you will call on Jesus, He will change your life.

God loves you. Christ died that you might live. John 3:16 For God so loved the world, (you) that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever (when you) believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

We are all alike. We all have sinned. Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, (me and you) and come short of the glory of God;

We deserver to die, but God offers us the GIFT of eternal life and that gift is in JESUS. Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus offers this gift to YOU. Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Rom. 10:9-10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. [10] For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

All you have to do is open the door of your heart confess you are a sinner and invite Jesus in. He will change your life. And that is just the beginning. The things God will do for you here and now. WOW!

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