Hey, my name is Jon. Welcome to my blog. Here’s a little bit about my life and my faith in Jesus:
How I Came to Faith
I was four years old when I first came to faith in Christ. I used to listen to a lot of great Christian radio programs back in the day. Man, that makes me sound so old. These were programs like “Uncle Charlie’s Bible Hour,” “Adventures in Odyssey,” and “The Captain’s Club” with Captain Chesapeake and Miss Sparkle. These programs ran usually around dinner time every night, or on Saturday mornings, and we would listen to them as a family.
The one that had the biggest impact on me was “Children’s Bible Hour” with Uncle Charlie. I remember that this man shared the gospel. He shared how you could come to faith in Jesus Christ on the program. After hearing Uncle Charlie share the gospel, I went to my parents. I remember clearly that they were about to leave on a date. There was actually a babysitter there ready to watch me and my younger siblings. I wouldn’t let my parents leave until they knelt down with me in front of the couch. They lead me through a sinner’s prayer. And that’s how I professed faith in Christ.
How My Faith Was Threatened
So, I really grew up as a Christian. I grew up going to church every Sunday. I was part of children’s church programs, vacation bible school, and youth group. It was just part of life; it was part of the culture I grew up in. I didn’t really think all that much about it. I believe I had a relationship with Jesus during that time, but it was a basic one. It wasn’t a deep relationship. I went to church every Sunday, read my Bible, and occasionally prayed, but that was more of what my parents wanted than what I wanted.
It wasn’t until I went to college that my faith was really challenged for the first time. A lot of kids in my church went to a Bible college that I won’t name here, because I don’t want to shame anybody, but it was a very fundamentalist and legalistic bible college with lots of very strict rules. They were very strong on “if you want to please God, you’ve got to live this strict lifestyle.”
I remember coming through a year of that and saying to myself, “If this is what Christianity is, I don’t want it. I don’t want to be part of this anymore. It’s too hard; it’s crushing my soul to try to live up to these expectations, when I know my own sin, and I know how much of a sinner I am. I can’t please God. I can’t do enough to make God happy with me.”
The thing is that I knew that salvation was by faith and not by works. I knew that I had a place in heaven because of what Jesus had done on the cross: that he had died, he had taken my sins upon him, paid that penalty for my sins, and washed them away. But there was a disconnect between that knowledge, and what this college was teaching. They said, “Okay, well you’re getting into heaven, but now you have to work really hard to make God happy with you now and earn prizes for heaven.”
How My Faith Was Strengthened
Well, after a year of that I decided not to go back to that college, and I switched majors. I switched colleges. God led me to a little bible college near where I grew up, and I got a degree in youth ministry from there. That college was a huge blessing, because there were a couple of professors and a couple of close friends that I made there who led me from that fundamentalist, legalist Christianity, that I so abhorred, to a rich vibrant belief in God and in his power and how God’s love is entirely based on what Jesus has done on my behalf.
I can’t do anything to make God love me less; I can’t do anything to make God love me more, and I live for him out of gratitude, and out of love for him, and out of enjoyment of him; not out of any sense of judgment or that God is going hate me, or that God is going reject me, but out of a sense of peace in his love.
Up to the Present
That’s what Christianity really is. That’s the place that I’ve come to. I really ran as far away as I could from that legalistic version of Christianity into what I believe is true Christianity: true Christian belief.
Now to fast forward a little bit here: I finished college. I became a youth pastor at a church in Tampa, Florida for a few years. I also went to seminary and then took a position in North Carolina where I moved, met my wife there, got married, had a kid and then she and I felt a call to move to New York where I became a solo pastor. We had our second son there.
Unfortunately (and I’m not going to go into details here) there was a lot of bad stuff that happened at that church and we ended up leaving. We moved back to North Carolina where I am now. All of a sudden now, for the time in my adult life, I’m not a pastor or youth pastor. I’m a stay-at-home dad with my two young boys while my wife supports us.
I want to keep teaching. I want to keep sharing my faith. I want to keep telling people about Jesus, and how amazing he is. So that’s what I’m doing here on this blog, and I hope this is a blessing and a help to you; not just this testimony, but this whole blog. I hope you find some good content on here. God bless!