I recently preached at an Alabama Baptist State Convention event for senior adults. It was their Senior Adult Evangelism Conference. The meeting was held at the East Memorial Baptist Church in Prattville, Alabama. What a thrill it was to see more than 1,000 senior adults show up for the meeting. They came in cars, vans and buses. They literally packed out the church.

It was a special treat for me to be able to preach for the event since I grew up in Alabama and for many years was an Alabama Baptist. Alabama has an outstanding convention under the capable leadership of Dr. Rick Lance. They are a strong state convention with bold support for the Cooperative Program. Rick was present for the meeting, which gave us some quality time to catch up on Baptist news and fellowship together.

While at the conference, a gentleman came to the microphone and asked, “How many of you have been a Christian for 50 years? 60 years? 70 years?” When I heard the question I thought, “My, to be a Christian for 50 years is a tremendous accomplishment. For a person to have been a Christian for 50 years would mean that that person must be very old.”

Then I said to myself, “Wait a minute, I’m getting ready to be a 50-year-Christian! I would celebrate my 58th birthday later that week and I made my profession of faith in Christ on June 20, 1954 when I was 8 years of age.

I will never forget that special moment in my life. The week before while on family vacation and visiting with my grandparents at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, I felt strongly convicted by the Holy Spirit that I needed to give my life to Jesus Christ. I shared this conviction with my parents that Sunday afternoon and I prayed to receive Christ at my grandparents’ home at 1201 Fincastle Road in Lexington. The next week, after returning home to Jacksonville, Florida, I went forward at Main Street Baptist Church to make public my faith in Christ. That very special moment in my life is as clear to me as if it had happened on last Sunday. The invitation hymn that morning was “Jesus Is Calling.” As I recall, we didn’t get past the first line of the hymn before I was out in the aisle and extending my hand to my father who was also my pastor to say, “Daddy, I want to be a Christian.” The words of that wonderful invitation hymn still mean everything to me:

 

Jesus is tenderly calling thee home - Calling today, calling today; Why from the sunshine of love wilt thou roam Farther and farther away?

Calling today, Calling today, Jesus is calling, Is tenderly calling today.

Jesus is waiting; O come to Him now -Waiting today, waiting today; Come with thy sins; at His feet lowly bow; Come, and no longer delay.

Calling today, Calling today, Jesus is calling, Is tenderly calling today.

 

Once again, in 2004, June 20 falls on a Sunday. I am sure that on my 50th anniversary Sunday as a Christian a tear or two will well up in my eyes. They will be tears of gratitude for Christ Who gave His life for me. They will be tears of joy because my Savior is precious to me.

I am glad that as Christians we can confidently speak of living for eternity, because it will take an eternity to have an appropriate opportunity to praise the Lord for the salvation that He has given to us!

By the way, I was wrong. You don’t have to be very old to be a 50-year Christian!