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How I Became
A Christian,
by Eddie Roman
http://www.eddieroman.com/
. . . I'm
standing there looking at this cross, with a Bible in my pocket. I
was so happy. I felt like God was saying, "You're my boy
now." All I could think of was how awesome God is. All I
talked about was God, and the cross, . . . - Eddie
Roman.
Mt. Soledad War Memorial - San
Diego, CA
Photograph by © Mike Nelson
When I was 21 years old, I began to have a desire to get closer to God.
Having grown up in the Catholic Church, I figured that getting back to
weekly mass was the best place to start. I was dating a girl at the
time, and we were involved sexually. I knew this was against the
will of God, and I wanted to stop, but it's pretty hard to quit. One
night I told my girlfriend that I didn't want to have sex anymore.
After that, our
relationship lasted about a week.
I felt good about my decision, but I knew I still
needed to ask God to forgive me for
having sex outside of marriage. I decided to go to
confession. I told the priest what
I'd done. He asked if I used protection when I had sex. I
asked him if he meant a
condom. He said yeah. I said yes. He said that it
was O.K., as long as I use a condom.
I walked out of that church a happy man. I resumed my sexual
activities. A few
months later, however, the guilt returned. I knew it was
wrong, condom or not. I
stopped having sex, and decided that I would try not to have sex
until I got married.
A friend of mine invited me to Horizon Christian Fellowship in San
Diego. Having
never studied nor read the Bible (or been encouraged to by the
Catholic church), I
enjoyed the sermons very much. I heard the gospel and
understood it, and believed
it, but I wasn't ready to repent (change my ways). I thought
I was cool with God,
since I wasn't having sex anymore. Then I heard the Sermon on
the Mount from
Matthew chapter 5-7. Jesus said that if you lust after or
fantasize about women, it's
just as bad as committing adultery, as far as God's concerned.
I'd stopped having
sex, but I hadn't stopped lusting after girls, or fantasizing.
I figured that if I set my
mind to it, I could probably (maybe & hopefully) hold out from
having sex until I got
married. This was a possibility. But I knew that there
was no possible way on this
planet that I was going to stop fantasizing, or looking at and
lusting after beautiful
women. No way.
I continued going to the Bible study, and learned about the power
of the Holy Spirit. The Bible
says that God can give you power to resist temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13
- No
temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, but God is
faithful, and
will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the
temptation will allow you a way out, that you may endure it).
I figure that made
sense. If God is all powerful, and if He can do anything,
then yeah, He can keep me
from lusting after women.
So, after about two months of bible study, I prayed to Jesus and
asked Him to forgive
me of my sins. I asked the Holy Spirit to come into my life,
and give me the power to
live the way God wants me to. This happened at a service at
Horizon Christian
Fellowship, at a Miles McPherson service on a Wednesday night.
The very next night, I got a call from a
girlfriend that I hadn't seen in months. She
wanted to take me out. She had never offered to take me out
before this night. The
only time we ever spent together was when I went to her house in
the middle of the
night, maybe once every couple months. Now, she wants to
drive over and pick me
up, and take me to her "special place", some mystery
location that she wouldn't
reveal. I remembered something about being tempted after you
get saved. I thought
I probably shouldn't go out with her. But dumb as I was, I told her
to come get me.
She arrived at my house at around 10:00 PM. I asked her to stop by
the post office
before we went to her "special place". The Sports
Arena post office is open late into
the night. As I was leaving the post office, I noticed
something on one of the
counters. The place is usually cleaned by that time, this
object caught my eye. I
picked it up. It was a Bible. A little red Bible booklet with
Old English type. I
immediately remembered something about God always being with you,
and helping you
resist temptation. I put it in my pocket. I got back in the
car, and headed for the
"special place".
I grew up in San Diego. I'd ridden my bike and driven my car all
over San Diego. This
"special place" is visible from the I-5 freeway (a road I'd been
on many times),
yet I had never seen it. I'd heard about this "special
place", but had never been there
until this night. The "special place" turned out to
be the Mount Soledad War
Memorial - A thirty foot tall CROSS. Yeah, a cross. So
now I'm standing there looking
at this cross, with a Bible in my pocket. I was so happy. I
felt like God was saying,
"You're my boy now." All I could think of was how
awesome God is. All I talked
about was God, and the cross, and, "Ya know when I was little,
I went to Sunday
school, blah blah blah....." Of course my date was frustrated,
so we left. When we got
in the car and turned on the radio, there was a PREACHER on!!!!!
It was a commercial or newscast or something.
I was laughing at this point. God
rules! We ended up at her house. Now, for the past few
years, I hadn't set foot in this
girl's house without ending up in bed. But tonight was
different. Sex was the furthest
thing from my mind. We sat in the kitchen. She gave me
a hot chocolate. After about
ten minutes of nothing, she asked if I wanted her to take me home.
I said yes. And
that was the end of that. I never saw her again.
That used to be the end of this story, but a few years after this
happened, she called
me out of the blue, and I invited her to a Harvest Crusade (outdoor
evangelism meeting,
similar to a Billy Graham service). She ended up getting saved, and
she's been
walking with the Lord ever since, PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!!
God totally delivered me from sexual sin AND from
fantasizing & lusting after
women. When the desire to lust comes, when that initial
thought comes, I'm able to
stop it immediately, by the grace of God. I got saved at age
21. Six years later, I
married my best friend. Having kept myself pure for so long,
I was able to come into
a marriage relationship without the excess baggage that comes with
being in one sexual
relationship after another. I praise Jesus for setting me free!!!!
God can do anything,
he can change your life, no matter what you've done. JESUS CHRIST IS
LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Eddie, Jesse and Carri Roman
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