Every man (or woman) who comes to Christ has a story to tell. The particulars may be dramatically different but the underlying essence of each story is the same. Here is one man’s story or should I say every man’s story . . .
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”
John 5:24 NIV
with life undeveloped
though eager to grow
the world lain before me
I set out to know
though blind to the Light
(but here I regress)
‘til the day came
when I would say “yes”
I saw there before me
(though unknown erstwhile)
a hideous strength
a wretched espial
a dizzying vision
a vision so cruel
a sucking
a ripping
deep swallowing pool
a sickness inside me
was screaming its woe
wickedness cleaving
alive in my soul
a chillness descending
a judgment impending
a cold unrepenting
alive in my soul
shocked by this vision
aghast at this sight
“this cannot be me”
I cry out in fright
“‘it’s only a dream–
a dream in the night”
but the dream became spoken
the vision had words
the words took on meaning
my heavy heart heard–
“nothing is hidden
that God does not view
all secrets
forbidden–
exposed by the true
unapproachably Holy
indescribable Light
no sin and no darkness
survives in His sight”
pondering the point
of this God admonition
that each sin committed
of my own volition
walls me from God
on the side of perdition
demanding my death–
’twas not a dream
but realities harsh
unmistakable theme
“o what can I do”
my thinking expanding
“can this be true-
this dour understanding”
haltingly breathing
remorsefully heaving
repentant and grieving–
I am defined
“help me I’m dying”
I cry out in pain
no more the denying
the truth is quite plain
this dreadful condition that damns
I confess
“forgive me O Lord
relieve my duress”—
the Light just keeps shining
the darkness defining
‘til my heart resigning
responds a small “yes” . . .
“yes Yes”
to Him I say “YES”. . .
as waves blood red
wash over the screaming
waters soft streaming
flow over my head
a pureness
a soundness
a grace that is boundless
to rightness and goodness
to love I am led
the warmth of the surging
the cleansing
the purging
a newness emerging
as grave clothes are shed
from sickness to healing
from numbness to feeling
born from above
crossed o’er from the dead
listen
that sound
a far distant cry
no longer my screaming
but those at the cross
where one is to die
with no interference
this man in appearance
this servant is humbled
and gives no reply
He carries the burden
my sin has incurred and
He offers himself in my place
there to die . . .
a “yes” to the Father
“may thy will be done”
and there
on that cross
the victory is won
my death and my hell
nailed to a tree
He–
without sin
became sin
for me
Light shines in the darkness
o’ercoming the night
each “yes” that is spoken
now broken
contrite
each “yes” gives God glory
each “yes” tells the story—
of Jesus
the Savior
the Yes
and the Light
~JD Collier
John 1:5,9-13
In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. . . The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, or of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
“The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition. That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the Kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart’s happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead. That is where we begin, I say, but where we stop no man has yet discovered, for there is in the awful and mysterious depths of the Triune God neither limit nor end.” A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
