Jason’s Story

Growing up in south Louisiana I was born into the Catholic faith. My parents had me baptized when I was an infant like is customary for the Catholic religion.  I did not have everything, but I had everything I needed. I grew up on 400 acres which was the largest playground my brother and I could ever have asked for. I had parents who took me to church every Sunday, taught me right from wrong, taught me to be respectful, to have manners, to say yes ma’am and no ma’am, yes sir and no sir, please and thank you. Parents who never fought (or at least I never saw them fight).  They were exactly what you hoped parents would be like.  Loving, fun, caring, supportive, and patient.  I had grandparents who were pillars in their church and was easy to see that they loved the Lord with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. We never said a meal without bowing our head and blessing our food.  I remember one night when I stayed with my Grandparents, during the time when my Paw-Paw had extremely bad arthritis in his knees, and I was walking down the hall to my bed and past by Paw Paw’s bedroom door that was open. He was kneeling down on the hardwood floor at the foot of his bed and praying.  

I say all of that to say simply, I did not have a lack of Christian role models in my life. They did everything they possibly could to lead me to Christ, but like the old saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” I most definitely was not drinking in the Gospel or any sort of real relationship with God. When I went off to college, I went to church (when it was convenient for me), read my bible (when I felt like it), and prayed (when I needed something). When I moved to Dallas, I was the same “good guy” I always was but kept getting further and further away from a true fellowship with God. My daily life was like a script from 1 Corinthians 6:9, “…sexually immoral, adulterers, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revilers and swindlers,” and it goes on to say that none of these shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  I wasn’t one of those, I was all of those. I remember vividly driving home one night, coming back from somewhere I never should have been; I said out loud to myself, “If I die tonight, I am going to hell.”  

One afternoon I was running around Highland Park, where I lived at the time, and a wave of conviction swept over me. I stopped dead in my tracks and asked God to come into my heart and asked for forgiveness of all my sins. And for the first time in my life, asked God to be my Lord and Savior. I strived from that moment on to be a man who seeks after God, and although I don’t come remotely close to the man I should be, I now have the hope of eternal life and I live my life to help others who were once blind like I was, who were, as Romans 6:20 puts it… “slaves to sin.” 

The works we do on this Earth cannot save us, but we are the hands and feet of God and we can make appropriate use of the talents He has given us.  My prayer is that you would know that God loves you and desires a REAL relationship with you.  I pray that you know that you cannot out-sin God’s grace and that you realize that the penalty of your sin has already been paid, and you cannot tithe enough money, pray enough prayers, or read enough scripture to get you to Heaven. All are extremely good things, but the grace we receive is not from our works, it comes from the blood of Jesus Christ by His FINISHED work on the cross.