“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Romans 1:16a
I First Heard
I first heard the good news in 1980 when I was a college student at the University of Washington in Seattle. I was a sophomore living in a fraternity house with a lot of friends. On the outside I appeared to have everything together, but on the inside I had a lot of questions and an emptiness I didn’t understand. Church had never been a part of my life, and I trusted Carl Sagan (author of Cosmos, and promoter of theSearch for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence) for the answers to life’s big questions.
They Invited Me
The Navigators had started several Bible studies among the fraternities in the Greek system and some of my good friends were attending. One day I walked into the TKE house library where some friends were discussing the Bible. They invited me to sit and listen. I remember hearing them talk about the “Holy Spirit” of whom I had never heard before. Then, they asked if they could pray for me, and I said, “Sure.”
Over the next several months there were several significant conversations, and I read a few books such as Mere Christianity and Frank Morrison’s Who Moved The Stone? I was given a Bible by friends and started reading it. I started to sense some plate tectonic shifts happening inside, but I didn’t know what it meant. Finally, a friend asked me what I thought about what I was learning. I replied that I was pretty sure I believed the Bible. He invited me to pray, and that night my life changed forever.
He Pursued Me
The gospel changed my life and I’m thankful for the men who pursued me. At the time it felt like I had discovered the secret of life through my own interest and investigation. But as I looked in the rear view mirror, I believe a Holy God knew my deep emptiness and pursued me in love.
Some thirty-plus years later, my favorite verse is Colossians 1:13. God’s Word reminds me that I’ve been truly rescued and that I actually no longer live in that former domain: “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”
Kevin Virden, Elder
Photo Credit: Sybren Stuvel
Photo License: Creative Commons 2.0
