New Book Project

[greenbaggins]

I have been toying with this idea for a long time, but now I desire to start work on it. I have gone on Amazon and looked at any and all books that will help me with this, but I want to cast my net wider than currently published material. What I want to do is collect conversion stories that are based on God using a particular text of Scripture to convert that person to the true faith. I will then put these narratives in canonical order so that pastors will have a great resource for illustrations that show the power of the Word of God. If anyone is willing to share such a conversion narrative of their own (that is based on a particular text of Scripture; I am not looking for generalized conversion narratives at this point), and you are willing for your story to be part of a book, please append your story with the added information of whether you want your name listed, or whether you wish for it to be anonymous.

 

[SolaScriptura]

Sounds like a worthy endeavor! I just hope your book doesn't inadvertently reinforce the "I'm going to flip the Bible open and whatever passage my eyes fall upon, that's a special message from God to me" mindset.

 

[greenbaggins]

Ben, certainly a danger to avoid. However, it is also certainly true that such things God has used (however bad a hermeneutic it might be!) to convert people. Augustine comes immediately to mind...

 

[SolaScriptura]

Ben, certainly a danger to avoid. However, it is also certainly true that such things God has used (however bad a hermeneutic it might be!) to convert people. Augustine comes immediately to mind...

Exactly. Again, not trying to dissuade you or discourage you. It's just that people all too often use extreme exceptions (like Augustine) to justify their own terrible hermeneutic. Anyway, have fun!

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

If you have Iain Murray's biography of A. W. Pink, I think I recall him stating that Pink was converted through Proverbs 14:12, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

 

[BFG33]

I was reading through Matthew and read 28:17 and it got me good as I thought books of religion were trying to trick me. That verse seems too honest if they were trying to trick people. I hope this helps.

 

[Ask Mr. Religion]

I had heard about a local Southern Baptist tent revival hosted by one Rev. Walter St. Claire in Kingsport, Tennessee. This was in 1967.

As a cradle Roman Catholic, I was very curious about what went on at these revivals, so I hitchhiked the ten miles to the meetings each night and to see Rev. St. Claire bring down fire and brimstone among those in attendance. Each night when I got home I would open my Bible to learn more about what I had heard. The things I had heard were hard sayings, "faith alone", "grace alone", "propitiation". In the days of no internet, all I had was my Grandmother's huge family Bible, so I would turn its pages hoping to understand some small part of what I had heard earlier that evening.

On the fourth of the five nights Rev. St. Claire was in town I returned home, again studying what I had heard. On this night, what I was reading from that evening's sermon, "Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand..." (Matthew 26:45), seemed to jump off the page. Yes! I was like the sleeping disciples, who had become so "comfortable" with the physical Lord Jesus, that I did not grasp Who Jesus really was and why He was sent by God. Now no tears came, no crying out for mercy, but only the washing over me a sense of tremendous peace as I prayed for God to grant someone unworthy like me His saving grace. That regenerative moment in my life set me on a journey in my walk of faith that still continues.

Anonymous listing if you decide to use this, Lane.

 

[Ask Mr. Religion]

You might want to include Sproul's testimony:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/decemberweb-only/12-30-21.0.html

 

[Ed Walsh]

What I want to do is collect conversion stories that are based on God using a particular text of Scripture to convert that person to the true faith.

I don't know if this qualifies because the verse did not immediately bring salvation to me, but here goes.

===========

My story is not about some powerful man using some profound scripture. It is more of an example of how God can use the foolish things to confound the wise. He is most able to use even the lightening in the sky if He so ordains.

In 1971, I was twenty years old and addicted to drugs, and worse things; lost beyond all hope in sex drugs and rock in roll and the occult. Then one night I as I arrived at the Hackettstown Diner, I was met by a sight even more decrepit than myself. A shoddily dressed and very drunken man sat wallowing in his urine, and as I passed by him he looked up at me, and, with his slurred speech said these five words twice, "Seek and ye shall find -- Seek and ye shall find." I knew almost nothing of the Bible, but I knew that that was something Jesus said and his words stuck in my head. I could think of little else. Today, 46 years later, I can still hear those words. The Lord was pleased to use them to begin a process that not too long afterward led me to believe savingly in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a whole other story, but it all started with God's words being spoken by another lost soul who was in as bad a shape as me.

Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9

 

[reaganmarsh]

J.C. Ryle was converted through Eph 2.8-9 being read publicly during worship.

 

[VictorBravo]

God opened my wife's eyes before mine. I remember the day clearly. A mutual friend, Cindy, kept talking about how the Bible was the word of God. She mentioned how some young man had decided to read through the whole Bible in 3 months.

My wife, who was extremely well-read and a published writer, decided she ought to at least read through it too, if only for literary benefit.

She got to Genesis 1:4, "And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness."

She put the book down and said out loud, "Uh-oh, Cindy's right. The Bible is the Word of God."

And she picked back up her Bible and read through to the end in a little over a month.

A month or so after that, she was being interviewed by elders of a local evangelical church over her profession of faith before joining that church.

It took me a bit longer....

 

[Cymro]

My wife was converted after me and this is how it happened. Both of us were Anglican’s, and knew nothing of the gospel. I was invited to attend evangelistic meetings in a local Presbyterian church, which was a strange experience for one of the Establishment. Over the year I became convicted of my self righteousness and had a prolonged conversion.
The same church held evangelistic services again that year and I took my wife. A Headmaster, who was a very much used laypreacher in my country, preached all the week on different texts. On the night my wife came out of darkness into light, he took “Judas went out and it was night” with “Judas, betrayest the Son of man with a kiss.” A terrible and aweful scene was painted. At the end of the service I was still looking at the pulpit stricken with the solemnity of what I heard, when I felt a tap on my shoulder.
A voice behind me said , “you had better take your wife into the vestry.” Looking at her I was surprised to see her crying.
Taking her to the Ministers room she joined eighteen others crying on their knees. That night her chains fell off and she rose a new creature in Christ. All of them went on in the faith, and that was over 50yrs ago.

 

[Ryan&Amber2013]

Charles spurgeon and the verse in Isaiah you can't leave out.

 

[chuckd]

I was converted by the parable of the unforgiving servant. I had a very unforgiving heart and the last verse "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart" made me weep uncontrollably. I had never felt guilt like that in my life, despite having grown up in the church and heard the gospel countless times. I sought refuge in Christ and immediately forgave the person who had (unintentionally) hurt me. She is now my wife.