#LifeStory [ 5 ] Campus Outreach (CO) was cool, and had a lot of really nice people. After going to a few meetings, I met a few guys who befriended me, and I started hanging out with them at the meetings some. But they were different. These college students claimed to be Christians (just as I did) but they were different in the sense that they genuinely loved people and loved Jesus. They also had a lot of fun without alcohol or drugs, which was unique on a college campus.
Soon, they invited me to join a Bible study they were starting, led by Brian Lewis, the Campus Outreach director. This study used the CO Bluebook, which basically explored what the Bible taught about the Obedient Christian Life. God used His Word throughout the study to teach me what it meant to have a personal relationship with Jesus and submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. God used this verse to open my eyes: 2 Corinthians 5:17, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
A new person? I grew up in church, learned the Bible, and therefore thought I was a Christian, but I had never become a new person. In fact, I had spent my whole life living for me! That night (sometime in the spring of 2000), as I lay in bed thinking about this, I poured out my heart to God. I confessed my sin and how I had been living for myself and pledged with all my heart to live for God and do His will – I wanted to live for Jesus! I thanked Him for dying for me on the cross and asked Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior.
That was the end of my old selfish nature. I am a new person in Christ! God's Holy Spirit transformed my heart and continues to give me a new love for people, and a heart to know and love Him. I'm no longer judgmental and quick to "look down upon others." My thought patterns were continually being challenged and renewed day by day, but I was no longer living in the power of sin! I'm alive and truly free to live and walk in Christ's righteousness!
Soon, they invited me to join a Bible study they were starting, led by Brian Lewis, the Campus Outreach director. This study used the CO Bluebook, which basically explored what the Bible taught about the Obedient Christian Life. God used His Word throughout the study to teach me what it meant to have a personal relationship with Jesus and submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. God used this verse to open my eyes: 2 Corinthians 5:17, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
A new person? I grew up in church, learned the Bible, and therefore thought I was a Christian, but I had never become a new person. In fact, I had spent my whole life living for me! That night (sometime in the spring of 2000), as I lay in bed thinking about this, I poured out my heart to God. I confessed my sin and how I had been living for myself and pledged with all my heart to live for God and do His will – I wanted to live for Jesus! I thanked Him for dying for me on the cross and asked Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior.
That was the end of my old selfish nature. I am a new person in Christ! God's Holy Spirit transformed my heart and continues to give me a new love for people, and a heart to know and love Him. I'm no longer judgmental and quick to "look down upon others." My thought patterns were continually being challenged and renewed day by day, but I was no longer living in the power of sin! I'm alive and truly free to live and walk in Christ's righteousness!