East Highland Baptist Church, Hartselle
The very first person I led to the Lord was a neighborhood rival — Randy. There were times when I was not so Christlike around him, but somehow he accepted my invitation to go to a revival service at my church. During the invitational hymn, I noticed Randy grabbing the pew with a strong grip, and I nudged the boy next to me named Keith. We asked him if he needed to go forward. Randy said “yes,” and we led him to a place near the organ. Kneeling down, we explained to him the Roman road of salvation that we learned just weeks ago during a lay evangelism conference at our church.
We read to him Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned,” and Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” We also read to him Romans 5:8, “But God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” We went to Romans 10:9, “That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
We asked Randy if he believed what we read to him from the Bible, and he said, “Yes.” We asked him if he wanted to repent of his sin and confess Jesus as his own personal Lord and Savior, and again he said, “Yes.” Keith and I led Randy to pray and ask Jesus to come into his life, helping him to turn from his sins and live for Jesus.
I have never forgotten the joy of taking Randy to the pastor and letting him tell what Jesus did for him, or watching him be baptized, or reading his Bible and telling others of how he was saved. Randy was the first of many, but I still marvel at how God used His Word, His Spirit and two young teenage boys to lead another boy, a former rival, to Jesus.
We should never complicate the gospel for others but keep it simple enough for children to grasp, receive and share. Paul put it as simple as anyone to the Corinthians, “Christ died for our sins … was buried … and rose again” (1 Cor. 15:3b–4). If you want to know God, do as Randy did and take the Roman road to Jesus.
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