I was the one with the social skills, so I was appointed the designated “introducer” to the good-looking girls. On Friday and Saturday nights I would load in the car with four or five players on the basketball team and hit every bar in Wheeling, West Virginia. I looked forward to Thursday-night Bible study, where our campus ministry would crowd into a small living room to sing songs, share our hearts, and experience God’s presence in a powerful way. I read my Bible in the mornings and had a wonderful time with God, only to experience extreme remorse and guilt later in the day as I engaged in activities that violated the Holy Spirit living within me. The ones that I liked and seemed reasonable I obeyed and the ones that I disliked and seemed unreasonable I chose to disregard.Īs I look back, it was a crazy way to live. Unconsciously I began to compartmentalize my faith (just like I observed in the church of my childhood) and took a salad-bar approach to God’s commands. I felt such joy in my new relationship with Christ, but I didn’t want anyone telling me what to do. Jesus was certainly my Savior, but He was far from the Lord of my life. The early days were filled with a joy that I’d never known and followed by tests that I had never imagined.Īs I read through my New Testament in the mornings and talked with God about school, basketball, and girls, I soon learned that His opinion about how to “do” life was a little bit different from mine. Little by little, I learned how to get to know God and understand His Word so He could talk back to me. I was very fortunate to have some mature Christians enter my life shortly after my conversion and teach me how to live the Christian life. Although some sins quickly vanished, others seemed impossible to overcome.

I was motivated and wanted to share the love that I now experienced with everyone.īut my new life also introduced new struggles. I had peace in my heart and often a song on my lips. and the sin that I once enjoyed became repulsive. No one told me I had to stop “doing this or that,” but somehow God changed my desires . . . I read it at night and in the morning with a sense that the living God was speaking directly to me. No one told me I had to read the Bible, but I couldn’t put it down. God did a radical work in my heart and planted a new set of desires within me. Well, I’d like to say that my life was completely changed, my problems were put behind me, and my new relationship with Christ was one of countless victory after victory but I can’t. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Chip ingram true spirituality ebook