As a young person I took pains to fit in, and as a professing “Christian” I was a chameleon.  I changed colors to blend in with whatever group I found myself.   When I was nineteen God drew me to His Son, and I received Christ as my own personal Savior.   Change came as I began to identify with those who loved the Lord, with those who loved His Word, and with those who were not ashamed to obey His commandments.

I sometimes wondered as I grew older if I really understood salvation back then.  I wondered if I really was obedient to Christ.  I thought of those days of stocking shelves in the grocery stores while attending Bible school.  I remember being referred to as the “preacher”.  I recall my eyes welling up with tears when a manager took it on himself to challenge my faith.  The emotion came not from being confronted, but from seeing him spiritually blind, unable to see the truth, and me being so young in the faith that I didn’t know how to answer him.  When he saw my response, he hesitated and then said to me; I just wanted to see if it was real.  He never tested me again.

The chameleon kid became bold in the faith.  I quit trying to hide when my sister gave a gospel tract to a store cashier.  One time I filled up with gas at the Georgia state line and drove two miles  beyond, before I returned to the gas station and passed out gospel tracts to the rural men who had assembled for coffee.  I told them that I came back because someone there apparently needed what was in those tracts.  Another time I stopped along a road in Georgia and distributed gospel tracts to a motorcycle gang who had pulled over to rest.  When giving the tracts out, I made them promise to read it before I would let them have one.

I speak as a fool when I speak of my actions,  because it is all about what God did, in my heart and in my life.   He changed me!  He replaced my fear with faith.  He replaced the shame I felt with boldness.  He replaced my dread with expectation!  He replaced my sadness with rejoicing!  He took my sin and forgave me!  He lifted me from the darkness into the light!  He took my death and gave me life!  He took my guilt and soiled garments and replaced them with the  righteousness of His dear Son!

How can I not speak of Him?

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  II Corinthians 5:17

Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul!  Psalm 66:16