New Life Presbyterian Church of Dresher

Truth Revealed

The most remarkable part of my story is how unremarkable it is in some ways. There was no parting of the clouds, no absolute moment of change, but simply a gradual realization of how true the Bible was and the implications of that truth on my life.

At one point in my life I was a perfectly contented Atheist. I met, dated and finally married a woman who was a Christian, and we were able to exist by avoiding talk of religion. I realize now how angry I was at the time. My anger would come out in so many aspects of my life that I was endangering my relationship with my wife. Through some counseling that my wife and I participated in, I came to realize that I was angry with a God that I professed not to believe in! At one point after our two daughters were born, my wife started attending New Life Church. How I hated that church at first! The modern music (I am a classically trained musician), people raising their hands, the Gospel - I really didn't get any of it and wanted no part of it.

Eventually, we got to meet a few couples in the church and, much to my surprise, they were pretty normal. One of the guys was an assistant pastor in the church named Dwight. Dwight made it a point to not make me feel like a "project" and was able to be a friend to me just the way I was. He was just as willing to talk about basketball and play racquetball with me as he was to discuss my beliefs.

My wife and I agreed to participate in a small group in the church consisting of five or six couples who met every other week to discuss various subjects. I was very direct (some might say defensive) in expressing what I did and didn't believe, but surprisingly enough, all of the couples accepted me. The Bible eventually began to interest me after I started a more pointed Bible study with Dwight, but it didn't yet interest me enough to believe it.

A breakthrough occurred when I agreed to attend a men’s retreat at Long Beach Island. I couldn’t believe that I had agreed to go. Even when I got there, I remember thinking before I went in, “What in the world am I doing here? I’m a fish out of water.” I did go in, though. And the love of God, shown through the men who were there, began to really change my life. Sometime in early December 1994, I could no longer deny what was the obvious truth: The Bible is true, and Jesus Christ is the Lord of all! And most surprising of all, I believed it!

I was nervous at first about what people would think. How would I tell my Atheist friends? Who would like me? The Lord cleared all of those paths for me, though, and I cannot begin to describe the many ways that the realization of truth has changed me since. Knowing how the Lord worked in my life has given me a heart for those who don’t believe and are married to Christians, because I understand both the positive and negative possibilities of that relationship. My past has given me a way to identify with others in my situation, and God is able to use it for His glory.

This is what I have learned: Disbelief in God doesn’t change the fact that he does indeed exist. Just because I didn’t believe in God didn’t mean he wasn’t there. Despite my unbelief, He reached out to me and gave me new a new heart and new eyes. Words that I had read in the Bible didn’t change on paper, yet to me they began to reveal truth and love that had previously escaped me. God has changed me in ways too numerous to count…and I am grateful for each and every one of them.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6