The Choice

      My hometown, Rolling Prairie, Indiana, had two churches.  There was the Christian Church and the Methodist Church.  There was a Catholic church near the town but it was out in the country.  For us, we had two choices.  When I went down to Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, I found that I had many more choices and so went to a different church almost every Sunday .  I was just looking for something that pleased me and my "search" for religious peace.  I finally settled in at a very "formal" church with great music, a lot of incense, tradition, color and history.  It seemed to be what I was looking for.  Unfortunately for me at the time, it was not what God had in mind.  I was drawn into the church system until my Father finally said, "enough is enough."   "Come on home, your going into the service."  He didn't mean the am or the pm service, but a branch of the military.  God has His way of getting you where He wants you.  So, I was in the U. S. Navy and God moved in a mysterious way to plant me in the music school in the suburb of Washington, D. C., called Anacostia.  I was teaching music and a fellow instructor came by one day, opened my door and said the following words:  "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.   He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."  
      They were the words of First John 5:11-12.  He gave no reason for doing it, just said the words and closed the door and left.  Those two verses, however, changed the direction of my life.  God plainly said how I could achieve that for which I was looking.  If I had the Son, I would have eternal life.  That's what I wanted.  If I were to chose another way, I would not have life at all.  The answer seemed plain at the time but I did not jump at the chance to achieve this life.  God was still taking me down road after road, smoothing out old things that had been important at the time, but now they were different.  It was sometime later that I surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ when two men, Dolphus Price and Dr. Fred Brown preached sermons about people who thought they were Christian, but really were not.  It was that night that I gave my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.  God had moved one stubborn sheep for a cliff to a pasture.  He had to guide me constantly as I just went this way and that way.  His Rod and Staff moved me to where I ought to go.  That is the message I preach today.  If you have the Son, you have life.  If you don't have the Son, you don't have life.  The Lord Jesus Christ makes all the difference.  Praise God for His offer of salvation.