317 Sermon Illustrations on Conversion

Freely you have received; freely give. (Matthew 10:8)

Dr. Watson was complimenting Sherlock Holmes on a brilliant observation no one else had noticed.

“Of course,” Holmes remarked. “It’s what I do.”

Forgiveness and grace -- that’s what we believers do.

Here is one page from Ruth Bell Graham’s 1989 book, “Legacy of a Pack Rat,”:

“Someone has said, ‘If there had not been a Stephen, there might never have been a Paul.’”

“A tribal war was raging in Uganda. The soldiers led a line of prisoners to a bridge over a crocodile-infested river where they could shoot them and dump their bodies into the water for the crocodiles to dispose of.

“Among the prisoners that day was a young Christian. When his turn came to be shot, he asked permission to say a word first. ‘Make it quick,’ his captors ordered. The young man looked at them calmly, without fear.

“‘I am a Christian,’ he said. ‘I am not angry with you, for the same Jesus Whom I shall see in a few moments died for you as well. I forgive you. May you accept His forgiveness also.’

“They shot him. Turning to the next in line, they recognized a man from another tribe. ‘What are you doing here?’ they demanded. ‘We are not at war.’ And he was abruptly dismissed.

“But that young man was never the same again. He spent the rest of his life sharing his new discovery of the risen, transforming Savior.

“He had watched a Christian die.”

As followers of Jesus Christ, you and I are not perfect, only forgiven. After receiving God’s grace, we are sent into the world to bless others. We do this by extending our own forgiveness and love to those who might otherwise deserve censure and condemnation.

Anyone can exclude and condemn; grace includes. Grace surprises.

Scripture establishes two standards for the forgiveness Christians offer to others:

1) As Christ has forgiven us. (Ephesians 4:32 and Colossians 3:13)

If Jesus has cut corners and hedged on His forgiveness to us, we may do the same to others. However, Colossians 2:11-15 gives a long list of what His forgiveness accomplished.

2) As we want God to forgive us. (Matthew 6:12 and Luke 11:4)

We get to decide. We just have to figure out to what extent we want to be forgiven for our sins, and then do the same to others. Nothing could be simpler.

If you will, He will. (Matthew 6:14)

if you don’t, He won’t. (Matthew 6:15)

The channel through which we receive grace and forgiveness from God is the same one through which we extend it to others. If we clog it up by refusing to forgive others, no further forgiveness will be forthcoming for ourselves.

If we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven.

Among the most inexplicable traits of humans that surely must exasperate the Lord is our unwillingness to give to others what Christ has so freely extended to us. Jesus told of a fellow who was relieved of an astronomical debt, but who then had a man arrested for an outstanding debt of a few dollars (Matthew 18:21-35). The human heart is constantly setting new records for harshness and blazing fresh trails for callousness.

Oxymoron: An unforgiving Christian

“Pastor, I’d like you to pray for my brother.” Sitting in my office, Leslie told of his brother going off to do military service years earlier. Something happened during his absence that caused the brother to sever the relationship with all family members except his mother. “We never knew what it was,” Leslie said. “He has refused to take our phone calls and our letters are returned unopened.”

I said I would pray for God to break the heart of his brother and save him. He said, “But Pastor -- my brother is a deacon in that Baptist church where you preached recently.” I was stunned.

I told him, “I cannot tell you whether your brother is saved or not, but I do know this. Your brother has not had a prayer answered since he was in the service.”

He who forgives pays

To forgive is to absorb the debt incurred by the other. “Jesus paid it all,” we sing in church.

John Ortberg tells of a young IBM executive who lost ten million dollars in a risky business venture. He was called into the office of the legendary Thomas Watson, the founder and head of IBM for forty years. “I guess you’ve called me in for my resignation,” the young man said.

“Here it is. I resign.”

Watson said, “You must be joking. I just invested ten million dollars educating you; I can’t afford your resignation!”

He who forgives pays. Maybe that’s why we find forgiveness so difficult.

God in Heaven looks at you at me, sinners all, and says, “I just invested Calvary in you; I can’t afford your resignation.”

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

God has too much invested in us to stop now.

“Forgiveness is God’s invention for coming to terms with a world in which people are unfair to each other and hurt each other deeply. He began by forgiving us. And he invites us all to forgive each other.” (Lewis B. Smedes, quoted in “Love Beyond Reason,” by John Ortberg, 1998)

The only thing we have to offer the world they can’t get anywhere else is grace.

When we fail to offer grace, our sin is enormous, our Lord is betrayed, and our own hearts shrivel.

Help us, Lord, to get this right.

Kim Menon was an avowed atheist. As a child, her parents took her to church but no one could satisfy her with the answers she sought.

“I thought believers just weren’t intelligent enough,” Menon said.

Now a kindergarten teacher in Seattle, Washington, education is a central part of Menon’s life. Striving to get involved in her students’ lives and to know their parents, she believes that’s how students best learn and grow. But Menon had no idea this path would lead her into a Christian commitment.

Three years ago, Andy Brown moved from Camden, Arkansas, to Seattle to plant churches, aided by Southern Baptists’ Cooperative Program missions and ministry outreach funded through their tithes and offerings.

Larry Bailey, missions pastor at Central Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas, a sponsor church for Brown’s mission, noted, “Together we are able to [impact] places like Seattle because it’s so expensive to live there.”

Brown, after arriving in Seattle, registered his son for kindergarten at the local school, where he was placed in Menon’s class. The school building seemed to be in good shape but Brown noticed that the grounds needed landscaping and care.

“A lot of the ministry we do is community service,” Brown said. “A constant presence in the community is the best way to reach people, so we kind of adopted the school.”

When Brown talked to the principal about his desire to help the school, she was hesitant. Brown agreed to work with no mention of his religious beliefs. Everyone knew he was the pastor of The Landing Church but there would be no pressure from Brown while he was on campus. He was there only to serve. Many teachers were curious why he would do all that work with nothing in return, so it piqued their interest.

“He could answer my questions when asked,” Menon said, “but that was it.”

Brown noted that in a small church like The Landing in Seattle’s secular environment, “most of the new believers are still not comfortable being bold with their faith.”

“So we have to have a lot of outside help to have a constant presence in the community” since The Landing does almost all the landscaping at the school along with some painting and catering several times a year for the teachers and other special events.

That’s why mission trips from sponsor churches like Central Baptist are important. Bailey was involved in one of those mission trips as a volunteer in Menon’s class, making copies, grading papers, helping with projects -- anything to be of service.

“She was very suspicious,” Bailey said.

“She said, ‘I don’t get it. You fly all the way from Arkansas to Seattle to make copies for me. Why?’”

He simply explained, “Because we want to love you and show you that God loves you too.”

As they worked, Menon sat in the back of the classroom and watched with tears streaming down her face.

“I had never met anyone who did things like that without wanting something in return,” Menon said. “I thought Christians were predators who didn’t really care about who I was. They just wanted me to say a prayer and then not give a care about me.”

Persistent love

For more than two years, the Brown family continued to minister to the school and to Menon, among others. They invited her to birthday parties, neighborhood get-togethers and holiday events. They never hid their faith; quite the contrary -- they continually invited her to church. It even became a joke, with Menon saying it would never happen. But as time went on, they all became friends, and she fell in love with this family.

At the same time, Menon’s marriage was falling apart, and she wanted to save it. She knew the Browns were pro-marriage and came to them for help. Menon felt hurt, unloved and rejected by her husband, but the Browns showed her that they would love her no matter what.

It made Menon wonder if there was something to all the talk about Jesus. “I loved them at this point,” she said, yet “I didn’t want to come to church and get their hopes up and then disappoint them.”

So she began to learn about God on her own. If she heard them mention a Christian book, she would secretly buy the book and read it.

Then Menon’s mother became very ill after a series of heart attacks. In spite of her fragile health, she was scheduled for heart surgery. Menon needed a miracle, so she did the only thing left to do: She called Brown and asked him to pray for her mother.

“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” Brown said.

What surprised him even more was what he heard come out of his own mouth: “God will heal your mother.”

Brown panicked. What if God didn’t heal her mother? What if this pushed her even farther from God? Yet he did what he knew he should do -- he started praying. He called everyone in the church, emailed and posted on Facebook so that every believer he knew praying for Menon’s mother.

“Prayer and fasting are first and foremost on Brown’s mind,” Bailey said. “Like the saints of old -- he’s patterned his life after them.”

Everyone waited with expectation as Menon’s mother underwent surgery. But when the doctors opened her up, they could find nothing wrong with her.

Menon was relieved, but also frustrated and angry. She wanted an explanation, but none of the doctors could tell her how her mother had been healed. She called a friend, an atheistic cardiac nurse, and her only response was, “Sometimes we don’t have the knowledge yet.”

She called Brown, and when she questioned him, he simply said, “What do you think about it?”

Menon searched her heart, and she knew who healed her mother: God.

Ready to believe

It wasn’t long until Menon was ready for the “God talk.” She was alone, listening to Christian music, and a song came on the radio that spoke to her.

“I am not alone,” she said. “Even though my husband leaves me, God will never leave me.”

She called the church, and Brown wasn’t available, so she spoke with a woman there.

“I feel something different inside me,” Menon began to explain. During the conversation, the woman led her in a salvation prayer over the phone.

Menon brought 19 of her unsaved friends to her baptism, and she is now the part-time children’s minister at The Landing Church.

“My life has changed immeasurably,” she said. “I used to omit the words ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance. I was for gay rights, and now I have a different definition of marriage -- God’s definition. I didn’t even know what a Gospel tract was three years ago, and now I’m handing them out.”

The Browns continue to help Menon grow in her faith and help her reach others.

“Tell the people in Arkansas, ‘Thank you,’ and that they are changing lives,” she said.

“There’s a teacher next door to me, and she’s been burned by believers. They need to come volunteer in her class. They can give their time and prayers.”

The Pacific Northwest is 96 percent unchurched, and many of the traditional churches that do exist make little or no effort to reach people in their communities.

In addition to Brown’s church plant and his efforts to reach people through the school, he has started a homeless ministry called SALT, which supplies food, clothing, personal health supplies and biblical teaching.

Through Brown’s efforts, 48 people have come to Christ since March 2014.

________

Sabrina McDonald is a freelance writer in Cabot, Arkansas. This article first appeared in the Arkansas Baptist News (www.arkansasbaptist.org), newsjournal of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.

As Americans commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, some Christians also are remembering a series of evangelistic harvests that emerged from the death and destruction.

Among those to find a saving relationship with Jesus in the aftermath of Dec. 7, 1941, were the commander of the Japanese air fleet that carried out the attack, Japanese Buddhists in Hawaii and other Hawaii residents who heard the preaching of missionaries recalled from East Asia.

‘Impressed & captivated’ by Christ

Capt. Mitsuo Fuchida of the Japanese Imperial Navy was perhaps the most high-profile participant in the Pearl Harbor attack to find salvation years later.

Leader of the 360 planes that killed 2,403 Americans in a surprise attack, Fuchida survived six plane crashes in World War II before being handed a Gospel tract in 1950 at a Tokyo railroad station, according to a report by Fuchida published in 1951 by Kentucky Baptists’ Western Recorder newsjournal.

The tract told the testimony of American soldier Jacob DeShazer, who was captured by the Japanese during the war then came to faith in Christ in captivity through reading the Bible.

“With a desire to read the Bible, I purchased one and started reading,” Fuchida wrote. “Before covering the first thirty pages, my mind was strongly impressed and captivated.”

Fuchida “was convinced,” he wrote, that he “should first of all become a good Christian.” So he contacted the company that published the tract and was shown “from the Bible how to become a Christian. I then opened my heart and accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior on April 14, 1950.”

Within months of Fuchida’s conversion, he found himself participating in an evangelistic campaign in Nagoya, Japan, with Southern Baptist missionary W.H. “Dub” Jackson, a former American fighter pilot.

Jackson, 92, told Baptist Press he remembers standing atop a Chevrolet panel truck with Fuchida as both shared their testimonies, inviting onlookers to attend evangelistic meetings and calling them to faith in Christ.

“I thought, ‘How amazing. Here is a guy that was against us a few [years] before, and now both of us are witnessing for the Lord on top of this Chevrolet,’” said Jackson, who went on to lead Southern Baptists in partnership evangelism campaigns around the world.

A decade later, Jackson encountered Fuchida again in Dallas at the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ annual evangelism conference and learned the former Japanese commander had become a Presbyterian evangelist -- a capacity in which he served until his death in 1976, appearing alongside Billy Graham on at least one occasion.

‘A great influx of Christians’

In Hawaii, the evangelistic harvest following Pearl Harbor began within a year.

The day following the bombing, martial law was declared on the islands. Buddhist temples and Japanese language schools were closed in an effort to limit gatherings of Japanese people that could be used to communicate intelligence information to the Japanese government.

As a result, some Japanese Buddhist parents began sending their children to Christian churches in an effort to find an alternate source of spiritual instruction.

Chris Martin, executive director of the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention, said the religious liberty of Buddhists was not seen as “of importance” at the time compared to the perceived threat to national security. He noted indignities committed against Japanese-Americans like imprisonment in internment camps.

Still, Edith Gima, 87, a Japanese-American believer who has lived near Pearl Harbor since before the attack, told BP “many of the Buddhist kids came to the churches, and some of them became Christians.”

After the war, “some reverted back to Buddhism,” said Gima, a member of First Baptist Church in Wahiawa, Hawaii. “But we did have people who were Buddhist that came to our churches.”

One Buddhist woman from the island of Molokai, Gima said, became a Christian at a Baptist congregation on Oahu while seeking medical treatment in the Honolulu area. When she went back to Molokai, she started a Sunday School in a Buddhist temple, and the group became Kaunakakai Baptist Church.

Mori Hiratani, 88, also was among the Japanese-American Buddhists to receive Christ in the wake of Pearl Harbor.

On Dec. 7, 1941, he was riding his bike to a Buddhist temple on Oahu when he saw Japanese planes attacking nearby Wheeler Army Airfield and was forced to return home. With Buddhist temple attendance eliminated from his routine, Hiratani began attending a Baptist congregation about a year later and was saved.

Hiratani went on to serve 47 years as pastor of First Baptist Church in Pearl City, Hawaii, before retiring in 2002.

“At least at Wahiawa Baptist Church [today First Baptist Wahiawa], there was a great influx of Christians” following the U.S. entry to World War II, Hiratani told BP. Of church members “my age, there were 17 people who surrendered to the Lord’s ministry ... some Japanese. There were also Koreans and Chinese.”

A convention is born

Among the fruit of the post-Pearl Harbor influx of believers to Hawaii Baptist churches was the establishment of the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention in 1943, Martin said.

Southern Baptist missionaries had been fleeing Japanese aggression in East Asia since the late 1920s, Martin said, but the flow of missionaries increased after 1941, with those workers bolstering Baptist ministries in the islands.

“Some of our historic leaders in the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention were born-again Buddhists, who as children during these times were led to Christ by the missionaries,” Martin said.

“The war had so many incredible negative aspects for Japanese residents here,” Martin said. Yet it “really opened people to see and understand the Gospel because of the hardships.”

Martin added, “As far as the Kingdom work is concerned in Hawaii, all the results of war in our early days were very advantageous to the proclamation of the Gospel here.”

It was with special expectations, beyond anything before imagined, that Pastor José, his wife,Sonia and their daughters left Tijuana for a Christmas holiday visit home to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. The weeks spent in Tuxtla Gutiérrez did not disappoint. For twenty years José had been estranged from his parents. Although always in his thoughts and prayers, he had come to the realization that his parents, now in their eighties, would probably never turn from a life that had caused him so much pain. But the last few months had witnessed a remarkable conversion and they couldn’t wait to celebrate the happenings together over the holidays.

José comes from a long family history of folk healers whose practice incorporated a wide, even seemingly incongruent, variety of spiritism. At the age of twelve he was dedicated to the spirits in an elaborate ceremony in which he was tied to the ground naked, chickens were sacrificed and their blood was mixed with his. He became an exotic dancer. He was encouraged to do penance through long stretches on his knees until the bleeding and pain made it impossible to continue. Even today he has physical reminders of that traumatic time in his life, having undergone multiple knee surgeries precisely because his ligaments were so damaged at a crucial developmental age.

While still a teenager José responded to a different message, one that proved life-changing and one that freed him from the darkness and pain to which he had become so accustomed. He began a journey centered in Christ, one full of hope and new life that literally gave him something for which to live. He heard about a new seminary being started in Mexicali, a city located at the opposite extreme of the country. So he headed out on the long trip north. Late one night he finally found the Mexicali Baptist Seminary, climbed the gate and slept until morning under the overhang of a building. He would stay at the seminary for four years and has since made his home in Tijuana.

These past twenty years witnessed little contact between José and his family in Tuxtla Gutiérrez. But that all changed when José’s parents made a decision to give up their old ways and put their faith solely in Christ. They were being discipled in an Assemblies of God church and were anxious for José and his family to visit and see what was happening first hand. They were even making plans to finally get married after more than fifty years together and they were ready for baptism. They would wait for José and his family, though, as there would be nothing better than for José to participate in the celebrations and for the whole family to witness a transformation in the life of two octogenarians.

José, Sonia and the girls are home now in Tijuana. Is there a better way to end the celebration of Christ’s birth than by returning home and praising God for all you’ve seen and heard? We doubt it.

Most Christians are familiar with the song “He Could Have Called Ten Thousand Angels.” It has been covered by many famous country and western stars. The chorus goes:

He could have called ten thousand angels

To destroy the world and set him free

He could have called ten thousand angels

But he died alone, for you and me.

There is an interesting story behind the song. Ray Overholt made his living as a country and western singer. One day he thought to himself: I’ve written secular songs, I’d like to write a song about Christ.

He opened his Bible. He knew a little about it from his mom. He began to read how Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane told Peter to put away his sword. Jesus told Peter that he could ask his Father and he would send twelve legions of angels to protect them (Matthew 26:53). Ray didn’t know at the time that would have been more than 72,000 angels, not just ten thousand.

The more he read about Jesus, the more Ray admired him for what he had done. In 1958 Ray was playing in a nightclub in Battle Creek, Michigan, when the Lord inspired him to start writing the song. He wrote the first verse and put it in his guitar case. Ray then told the club that he was quitting.

He finished the song and sent it to a publishing house, which reluctantly agreed to publish it. Sometime later he was asked to sing it at a small church. Following his singing, a preacher spoke a message that gripped Ray’s heart. He knew he needed Christ. So he knelt there and accepted, as his Savior, the One whom he had been singing and writing about. Ray Overholt went on to become a traveling singer and preacher.

Think about it - he was led to Christ by his own song. It is a song about what Jesus could have done, but didn’t, because he had something greater to do, the salvation of our souls.

Four hundred years after the death of one of the most well-known Native Americans in history, scholars say Pocahontas’ profession of faith in Christ is among the few facts known with certainty about the famed daughter of a Virginia Algonquin chief.

The only portrait of Pocahontas done in her lifetime was completed in early 1617 by Simon van de Passe.

Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Yet her conversion -- along with other key details of her life -- is absent from some contemporary portrayals of Pocahontas’ life.

“Most of what we think we know about her is legend,” said Helen Rountree, author of multiple books and scholarly articles on Pocahontas. “We’ve actually got very few records that even mention her.”

Born around 1596 in what is today coastal Virginia, Pocahontas’ given name was Amonute and her “secret, very personal name” Matoaka, according to Rountree’s book “Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough.” Pocahontas was a nickname denoting her playful personality.

Her father Powhatan was an American Indian chief who had more than 100 wives by 1610, Rountree wrote. Pocahontas was his favorite daughter from his favorite wife. Powhatan’s confederacy made contact with English settlers when they arrived at Jamestown in 1607 to establish the first English colony in the New World. Decades of alternating peace and conflict ensued.

At approximately age 11, Pocahontas met Englishman John Smith in 1607 while he was a prisoner of the Powhatan Confederacy. The well-known account of Pocahontas’ saving Smith from execution is false, Rountree told Baptist Press. The story is “a wonderful, wonderful yarn, but that’s all it is.”

The rescue account is absent from Smith’s 1608 and 1612 accounts of his time among the Powhatans, appearing only in his 1624 book “The Generall Historie of Virginia.”

John Wilsey, associate professor of church history at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, told BP “we can’t be certain” of the rescue narrative. Other scholars have theorized Smith was part of a Native American ceremony he didn’t understand, perceiving himself to have been rescued from execution though he was never in danger.

The oft-told story that Pocahontas and Smith fell in love also seems to be false, Rountree and Wilsey said, especially since Pocahontas was a preadolescent and Smith 27 when they met. He left America two years later.

Pocahontas was taken captive by the English in 1613 in an attempt to gain the release of Jamestown settlers held by the Powhatans. In captivity, she received Christian teaching from Church of England minister Alexander Whitaker. The following year she was baptized by sprinkling and professed faith in Christ.

While a theory published on the National Park Service’s website claims the genuineness of Pocahontas’ conversion “is open to question,” Wilsey said such doubts are “a recent interpretation” and that the conversion narrative has long been part of historians’ consensus.

Rountree, who said the conversion is well documented, theorized it may have been an instance of “Stockholm syndrome,” a condition in which captives begin to align with the thinking of their captors.

Whatever Pocahontas’ motives, Whitaker wrote in April 1614 that she “had openly renounced her country idolatry, confessed the faith of Jesus Christ, and was baptized,” according to Rountree’s book. At her baptism, Pocahontas took the name Rebecka, perhaps a reference to Rebekah in the Bible, whose sons Esau and Jacob spawned two nations. Similarly, Pocahontas was seen as related to two nations.

Also in 1614, Pocahontas married 28-year-old English widower John Rolfe, and the couple settled in the Jamestown area. “All the accounts agree,” Rountree wrote, “that she and Rolfe fell in love with each other.” Within two years, Pocahontas gave birth to a son named Thomas.

Pocahontas’ previous marriage to a Native American named Kocoum apparently was regarded by both the English and the Powhatans as dissolved, Rountree wrote. The Rolfes’ marriage was approved by Pocahontas’ father and played a role in securing a limited peace between the Native Americans and the English.

In 1616, the Rolfes traveled to England. Though few records of the trip exist, Pocahontas’ meeting with England’s King James I is documented, as is a reunion with Smith that apparently involved some tension over Smith’s ill treatment of her father following his release from captivity.

The Rolfes were set to return to America in March 1617 with a grant from the Virginia Company of London to conduct Christian missions among the Native Americans, Rountree wrote. But Pocahontas died from unknown causes before their ship exited the River Thames and reached the Atlantic. She was approximately 21 years old.

Pocahontas’ conversion story was not widely disseminated or celebrated until the 1800s, Wilsey said. But following the Revolutionary War, it was used to champion American notions of cultural imperialism.

“The conversion narrative only becomes important quite later on in the 1800s,” Wilsey said. Pocahontas was seen as “a founding mother” of America because she “stepped away from her own cultural heritage. Not only was she marrying an Englishman ... her conversion was [viewed as] her final act of rejecting her culture” in favor of the emerging American culture that many saw as uniquely favored by God.

Pocahontas became so prominent in the early lore of the U.S. that John Chapman’s 1839 painting “The Baptism of Pocahontas” is one of seven portraits in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington D.C.

Four centuries following Pocahontas’ death, Wilsey said, it is important for Christians to reject the notion she left an “inferior” people to join “the authentic people of God” among settlers of European descent.

Instead, believers should remember Pocahontas as “a real person created in the image of God” who “had human dignity,” Wilsey said.

“We can look back on her with sympathy,” he said. “...She left her cultural heritage behind” and “was sort of like a person without a country,” even with her new family and her Christian faith.

I have hesitated in writing my testimony because of the events surrounding my conversion. To some, my experience is not believable and to others, well, they say “nice things” as they change the subject. But, there are those Christians who rejoice with me when I tell them. To lay this testimony out for all to see makes the most important and significant event(s) of my life a target for examination and mockery. Nevertheless, here it is.

My parents were never religious people. Church was something we did on Easter or when there was a funeral. We had moved 27 times before I was twelve because my dad was in the service. So, attending church regularly was not something we did. The Lord was not a part of our home and I became an agnostic.

When I was 17 some high-school friends of mine invited me to a local church to see a film about the rapture. I went. The film scared me with the idea of being left behind. So, when the pastor asked if people would be interested in learning more about Jesus, I raised my hand.

The last thing I wanted to do was go up in front of the church. But to my dismay, he called all of us forward who had raised our hands. Church members had spotted me, so I could not really get out of going forward. Up I went not knowing what to expect.

So, there I was, on my knees along with a bunch of others who had raised their hands. I didn’t know about them, but I was stuck, embarrassed, and eagerly waiting for it all to be over.

A man from the congregation, with a huge Bible that had gold pages, was somehow designated to speak to me specifically and to teach me about Jesus so I could receive Him as savior. At this point, we were all kneeling at the front of the church, beneath the pulpit, and each potential convert had been matched to a congregation member. I scoffed under my breath as mine began to recite scripture and blab some religious mumbo-jumbo that I seriously tried to ignore. I wanted desperately to leave.

Then, unexpectedly, a woman about ten feet from me who had also come forward, started to cry. She cried with such depth and feeling that I was shocked. It was weird. This fanatical display was not what I wanted to be a part of, so I just focused on getting through it so I could leave.

Then someone else began to cry the same way and another. I wanted out!

By now, I was nervous. I wasn’t sure what to do or to expect, so I looked at the man I had been ignoring and decided to listen to him for just a second, and then I’d continue to ignore him. All the while I was wondering how to get out of there. But, in that moment where I paid attention, he asked, “So, do you want to receive Jesus as your Savior?”

Now, I am not the “jump on the bandwagon” kind of a guy, not at all. I wasn’t going to fall into this emotional hype sweeping through the church. So, I decided to focus and think logically. I examined this man. I remember very clearly looking at him. He seemed normal enough. Then a thought occurred to me. I realized that this situation might be important and I didn’t want to simply scoff at it and ignore it. Maybe there was something to this God stuff. After all, I don’t know everything. So, I thought about the options: If I choose God and He is there, I win. If He is not there, it doesn’t matter. If He is there and I don’t choose Him, I lose. Logically, I should give God a try. It made sense.

I knew that if God was real that I should, at least, manifest some form of sincerity even if it wasn’t much. I figured that being flippant with God, if He were real, wouldn’t be a good idea. It wouldn’t hurt to try and be sincere and these people in the church seemed to have some common purpose and identity. It was, to say the least, interesting. So, I quickly addressed a prayer to God (not knowing if He was there) and said, “God, if you’re there, then I’ll try and be sincere and accept you. If you’re not there, it won’t cost me anything.”

I looked at the man and said, “Yes.”

“Good,” he said. “Let’s pray,” and he led me in the sinner’s prayer.

As I started to pray, I tried to manifest a sincere and honest heart. I was “giving God a chance.” I followed the man’s lead and I began to confess my “sins” to God and to ask Jesus to forgive me ... everything was fine until something completely unexpected happened.

(I want to interject something here. I make no claims to being “spiritual” or “special” in any way. But, what follows is what really happened. And please remember that I have never been able to adequately convey the “experience” side of what happened in my soul that night. It is difficult to adequately describe. So, please bear with me.)

As I concluded my prayer, I became aware that someone “other” was there. Someone else was in the room with us and His attention was focused on me. This someone was not a member of that congregation. But I felt His presence dawning like a sunrise. This person was making Himself known to me in my heart. I somehow knew it was God. It was the Holy Spirit. He came to me slowly, gently, and then in a sudden movement, His Holiness overshadowed me with greatness and I became incapacitated. It was indescribable. He permeated my heart, mind, and soul. He washed over me in a burst of holiness and I was utterly undone. His incredibly deep purity shone upon my soul and I was instantaneously made aware of my utter sinfulness before a Holy and Righteous God. It was a supernatural experience of profound and utter depth. It wasn’t emotionalism. It wasn’t being psyched-out. It was God. I was in the presence of God Himself. I was in the presence of Perfect Holiness ... .and I knew it!!!

From the very deepest part of my soul, I felt a powerfully new and profound remorse for my sins, for offending God, for being unclean. I was a sinner! My body could not help but let loose a flood of tears of sorrow and guilt. I wept hard. I wept from the depths of my soul in guttural, heaving, moans of confession, and brokenness. I was in the presence of incredible Purity, Holiness, and Love. I was encountering God Himself. and I was a sinner. I could hardly stand to be in the presence of such deeply pure perfection and holiness. It was out of balance and I was profoundly aware of the disparity.

So, there I was, on the ground, sobbing as I’ve never wept in my life. I was a sinner and I knew it. The Holy Lord had revealed Himself to me and the natural result was to realize my own sinfulness. I kept sobbing and heaving out tears upon the floor. They came like a flood. And then.

This may seem unbelievable, but the only way I can explain it is that Jesus Himself manifested right there next to me. He had come to meet me on my knees. It wasn’t as though I could see Him or touch Him. But, He was there. I was aware of His Holy awesome holy presence next to me. It was incredible. It was wonderful and I felt my heart enveloped and lifted by Him. His concern for me was precious and tender. It was marvelous. He enveloped me in His love, His holiness, and His awesome greatness. I knew He was there to forgive me. I knew He loved me. I basked in His presence. I was with Jesus.

Then, while I was kneeling there, utterly absorbed and drifting in the experience of His presence, He moved. He moved toward me and gently entered my heart. Instantly, I physically felt my sin leave me. I felt the sudden and wonderful burst of forgiveness wash over my soul. I was instantly cleansed and born again and with it came the most profound and absolute sense of security of salvation I had ever known. My salvation was in Him. I was forgiven and safe forever.

Then, He gently lifted His marvelous presence from me. He let me breathe again, think again, and regain my composure. It took a while, but I was finally able to recover and eventually able to stand up. But I was not the same. God had touched me and I was forever changed. I was so ecstatic. My heart was overflowing with excitement, love, hope, intensity, and great joy. I was smiling so hard, that my cheeks were hurting and I couldn’t stop. It was great.

For weeks afterward, I was unable to stop speaking of Jesus. I was still living at home and all I could do was talk about what had happened. My family didn’t understand. I remember anxiously searching around the house looking for chores to do, anything to be a servant, anything to help my family. It was an insatiable desire. I told my friends about Jesus and eventually, they stopped hanging around me. They were sick of me talking about Jesus all the time. And it was no wonder because my zeal was without wisdom. I didn’t mean to, but I pushed them away.

My conversion experience was real as well as extremely personal. But, unfortunately, I was not discipled in the church I got saved in, or any church, and over the next two years, as surprising as it may sound, I slowly backslid. During that time the Lord convicted me constantly and gently. He called me again and again to repentance. But, I was confused and had begun to rebel against the conviction. It was so terribly uncomfortable in my sins, yet I wanted them, and I warred with my own desires. It was so difficult to love Him and run from Him at the same time. This went on for too long. But, again, His love won out.

One night, I was angry with God for the conviction He was sustaining upon my heart. It was difficult to endure and even though I had gotten into the habit of running from Him in order to make it go away, I still wanted Him. It was a strange mix. Anyway, on this one particular night, I looked up into the night sky and yelled out loud at God, “Leave me alone!” I still remember my defiant anger that was strangely mixed with fear and longing. I still remember the blanket of stars behind my fist in the night sky. I’ll never forget it.

The funny thing is, I don’t remember anything about the month that followed my defiance. You’d think that God would have done something to me to “teach me a lesson.” All I know is that one month later I was inexplicably on fire for God. Out of nowhere had come repentance and an insatiable appetite for His Word and prayer. I began to devour the Bible, reading it four to six hours every day. I would listen to Christian radio constantly and I would attend church six nights a week. I would read Bible commentaries and devotionals at work, or at home in the bath, in bed, even while walking. I absolutely could not get enough. This went on for two years. It was great being back in fellowship with God and He had blessed me.

During this time of intense study, there was a period of several weeks where I had been praying hard, begging the Lord to reveal to me what He wanted me to do with my life. I constantly asked Him to tell me and I was always giving myself to Him in every way I could imagine. I’d give Him my life, my body, my future, my abilities, failures, everything and constantly asked Him to do with me as He desired and that it didn’t matter if I was rich or poor, healthy or sick, married or not, etc. I gave myself to Him in every way I could think.

By this time, I had a girlfriend, who is now my wife. We were together a lot. One day while driving between Christian bookstores, the verse 2 Tim. 2:15 had stuck in my mind and I told her about it. When we arrived at the second bookstore, we met a man who had been saved only a few months and had just gotten out of jail. He told me how he needed to obey God and study just like it said in 2 Tim. 2:15. I was floored with the “coincidence.” I was still living at home at the time and when I got home, I told my dad what had happened. He had an old dusty Bible that had been given to him many years before. He opened it and inside the cover was an inscription 2 Tim. 2:15. This is what it says.

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.”

It was right after this, that I developed a new interest in understanding Christian doctrine and theology and a new intensity developed. [The rest of his testimony focuses on his ministry in Christian apologetics.]

________

Matt Slick is the founder, director, researcher, writer, and radio host for CARM - Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry.

During a recent drive home, Arkansas church planter Shane Fore began reflecting on God’s grace in saving him from a life of drugs and addiction, sending him into a life of ministry.

Fore was a methamphetamine dealer and his marriage on the brink of divorce until a radical encounter with God changed his heart and life.

“I’m driving and in front of me I see a blue water tower,” Fore said. “I remember a time 14 or 15 years ago I disappeared to go cook methamphetamine and I had been gone for weeks.

“I was walking back to my mom’s house and everything that I owned fit in a Walmart bag and I could see this water tower. That was my life 15 years ago. I was 35-years-old and I was homeless.

“Today I’m driving home, and God planted a church through us ... hundreds of people have to faith in Christ through our ministry. We have a thriving Celebrate Recovery ministry, jail ministry, food pantry and homeless shelter. And I’m looking at this same water tower. Same water tower and same guy, and an encounter with Jesus Christ changed all of that.”

“In my addiction, it was a source of pride for me to be with somebody the first time they got high or the first time they got drunk,” Fore said.

“I got so convicted about that after I came to Christ. When God pointed that out to me, I was so brokenhearted and I just began to ask ‘God how can I undo it? How can I help? How can I change that?’”

Fore slowly began to see the value of addiction recovery groups.

“Recovery groups help you unpack reasons for addiction and respond to live in healthy ways,” he said.

“It gives us an opportunity to get involved with people’s lives when they are at their lowest. If you’re there for somebody when things are bad, they don’t forget that. It’s a really good time to share Jesus with people because they’re looking for something to hold on to.”

Fore helped plant the Main Street Campus at Maple Grove several years ago and soon established its Celebrate Recovery ministry. He became the executive director of a homeless shelter in Trumann, Arkansas, early in 2022.

In a community which Fore said is experiencing the tangible effects of alcohol and drug addiction, Maple Grove’s CR ministry has seen many conversions and baptisms. He has also assisted several other local churches in starting their own CR programs.

Despite this fruitful ministry, the road of church planting and recovery ministry was not easy for Shane and his wife April.

Shane and April would frequently take turns living with their parents, while their relationship hung by a thread.

One particular night after a fight, the couple separated in a way that seemed permanent. Shane’s mother insisted he join her in attending a local Baptist church’s production of a play which presented the Gospel.

Fore had attended church before and knew about Jesus, but that night was different.

“I don’t know how many times I walked the aisle and prayed with a preacher, but never had a plan to stop sinning,” Fore said.

“I realized my problem was not a list of sins, but a sin nature. I knew I needed a change in my life, and anything God had to offer was better than my life.”

Shane describes practically begging his wife to attend the next showing of the play, where she would also surrender to Christ.

He said the two of them didn’t know everything about Christianity, but they knew this meant God wanted them to stay together and not get divorced.

After the couple was saved, they joined a local church and began studying the Bible often with other believers. Then he became a church planter.

Seeing that water tower in his hometown reminds Fore not only of where he’s been, but of where God is leading him.

“From a homeless meth addict to executive director of a homeless shelter and church planter. What a God,” he said.

“Who would take a chance on a homeless meth addict? God took a chance on a guy like me and gave me a seat at the table.”

Terry Bollea, better known to wrestling fans as Hulk Hogan, carried an oversized presence during a sports entertainment career that spanned nearly a half-century and included countless ripped shirts, bandannas and leg drops.

His biggest splash came in December 2023, though, as Hogan and his wife, Sky, were baptized at Indian Rocks Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in Largo, Fla. “Total surrender and dedication to Jesus is the greatest day of my life,” he posted on Instagram. “No worries, no hate, no judgment ... only love!”

Hulk Hogan posted a video of his baptism and that of his wife, Sky, at Indian Rocks Baptist Church to his Instagram account in December 2023.

Hogan, who made his professional wrestling debut in 1977, had become more open about rediscovering the faith he first committed to as a teenager. The previous August, he spoke with Joe Rogan about attending every Sunday.

“It’s something that you don’t let go of. People plug in and plug out ... but I’m there, because I’ve seen it change a lot of people,” he said.

Rogan, who has 14.5 million followers on Spotify, questioned the wisdom of Hogan naming his church, perhaps leading to a rush of visitors because fans would want to “go to church with the Hulkster.”

“No,” said Hogan. “I want more people there.”

Hogan died of cardiac arrest at his home in Clearwater, Florida, Thursday, July 24 [2025], at age 71. His Instagram account noted that he passed away surrounded by loved ones.

“At this time of grief, we ask that everyone please respect the privacy of his family and friends,” it said. “May we all take solace in the wonderful memories he left behind for the millions of fans worldwide whose lives he touched for more than four decades. He will be missed, but never forgotten.”

Hogan posted to X in April 2023 that he accepted Christ as his Savior at 14, “but now that I am one with God, the main event theme of surrender, service and love makes me the Real Main Event that can slam any giant of any size through the power of my Lord and Savior and so it is, even now brother, AMEN!”

Hogan told podcaster Theo Von that same month how, as a child, he had attended Ballast Point Baptist Church, another Southern Baptist congregation, in Tampa once with his mother. He continued attending with a friend’s family.

In junior high, he was playing guitar and getting into sports when a football teammate invited Hogan to youth group.

“He said [they] needed somebody to play guitar, so I went up there ... and that’s when I started listening to Scripture and ... heard John 3:16, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life,” Hogan told Von. “Bam, it hit me, ya know, and I accepted Christ as my Savior.”

He went on to admit he “derailed, for a long time” in his faith throughout school and into a wrestling career that began in 1977. [Holwick: this derailment included some dramatic sin.]

The early years were mainly spent as a heel — the wrestling term for a villain — in smaller wrestling organizations, or territories, and even during his first stint in the World Wrestling Federation. A 1982 role in “Rocky III” and appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where he announced the start of Hulkamania, brought national recognition and turned Hogan into a babyface — the wrestling term for a hero.

He returned to the WWF in December 1983 with “Eye of the Tiger” as his entrance music and won the world title the next month. Being the tag team partner of another massive star of the day, Mr. T, at WrestleMania I in 1985 and defeating André the Giant at WrestleMania III in 1987 launched Hogan into becoming one of the most recognizable people on the planet.

The rise continued, not just in the ring with the WWF, then World Championship Wrestling, then back to the WWF, now WWE. Mixed in were several stints in Japan as well as smaller territories at the beginning and end of his career.

Last year, Hogan was asked about calling his baptism “the greatest day of my life.”

“It broke down that fourth or fifth wall, to tell people the truth about my Lord and Savior,” he said. “... It was a major pivot in my life.”

“It was so fun to be a part of Terry’s baptism and to see the ripple effect ... all over the world,” Aaron Filippone, pastor of Indian Rocks, said in that video. “This is the way that Christians go public in their faith, and he felt it was important to do what Christians do.”