Living Stones News - Midwest Edition - Campus Crusade

In his search, a student found Jesus Christ and a new way of living
BY Joseph Rodgers –Senior and a member of the Campus Crusade for Christ chapter at Northland College in Ashland, Wis.

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." Revelations 12:11

The above verse is the premise for this short epistle. God is spirit, and he seeks those who will worship him in spirit and truth--something I have learned to do more and more over the past two and a half years because of what Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, did for the world over 2,000 years ago.

The workings of the "Eternal Spirit" are very profound if one will choose to meditate on them. The Law and the prophets testified to the coming of the Christ thousands of years before He came, and here I am, thousands of years after the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord, contemplating and submitting to the same Spirit and living the same Most Holy Faith as the patriarchs, prophets of old and even our Lord.

Death came into the world because of Adam's sin. Moses said that the sins of the father will be passed down to the third and fourth generation. The atonement of Jesus Christ's death on the cross is the only thing which can break this cycle. Without it, we are just "born into sin." We might as well eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.

Even a child is known by his works. When I was a child, I certainly was known by my works. I was not what you would call a sweet little boy. I knew what was right and wrong; however, most of the time I chose wrong. I did not have my head put on straight, nor did I care. As I entered high school, I had a big chip on my shoulder. Being a basketball star and all, nothing was going to stop me, right?

Well, without getting into too many graphic details, the Lord humbled me in a very personal and special way. He took one of my inner, personal sins and made it public. At the time I did not fully understand what was going on, but now as I look back, I can see the Lord working in my life. To make a long story short, I was publicly embarrassed. As with anyone, this humbled me fairly quickly. I no longer looked to others for my support or joy; I had nowhere else to turn except the Lord.

For a short time I was seeking the Lord. Up until my junior year in high school, I took the goodness of the Lord for granted. I was at a different school. It took me a while to fit into the crowd. I did it by conforming to their ways of drinking and smoking marijuana. I was now a big basketball star, cool dude, weed smoker. My life could not be any better. Or so I thought. I had a girlfriend at the time, who is now going to be my wife, Praise the Lord. We did everything together, even smoking marijuana. We were wicked people, no life or light, just darkness. We were in love and going to get married.

As I look back, now I can see what Solomon is trying to tell us in the book of Proverbs about the adulterous woman. "Her steps lead to death." And to death was where I was led. When I entered college, the marijuana smoking had gotten out of control. I went from smoking marijuana every weekend to smoking it everyday. I even tried to quit several times on my own. Surprise, surprise, it didn't work!

I began to seek the Lord again. Every once in while I would pick up my Bible and read it. These incidents became more frequent. I even had an argument with my brother that looking at women lustfully was a sin even before I was re-born. The Lord was beginning to show me some things.

When the planes hit the World Trade Center, my mind was suddenly moving 100 mph. I wanted to know why those planes hit the building, why people would do it in the name of God, nonetheless, and how this affected me. These are the questions I had.

I began to read up on Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. I was seeking pure knowledge. I have done a Google search on everything from Aliens, to Church History, back to Aliens. You name a crazy topic; I have most likely done a Google search on it.

For the next year and a half, I would use weed and Google to float my spiritual boat. In the process I ran into a person; His name was Jesus Christ. He taught me about forgiveness, repentance, and holiness. He loved me enough to show me that if I continued to live the way I was living, I was going to hell and burn for an eternity. I cried before the Lord begging for forgiveness, and it was granted because I had repented. I had come to the Lord out of a broken heart that He longed to fix. I went from being a selfish person to a loving person, a sinner transformed into a saint. That is what the love of God does; it transforms lives. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul writes, "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away, behold, new things have come." Praise the Lord! I have been guilt-free and blameless for the past two-and-a-half years. By his grace and my willing spirit, I will be able to continue in him for the rest of my life. Worthy is the lamb that was slain.


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