God Invaded My Life

AFTER THE young enlisted man accepted the quarter and, with it, a new understanding of faith, Chaplain Burton Hatch returned to his original question: “Now let me ask you again, Jim. Have you ever placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior?” Jim Hutchens replied, “No, I guess I haven’t.”

The chaplain then asked if he would like to, and Jim said he would. The two men bowed their heads, and the chaplain suggested Jim ask Jesus Christ to come into his heart and into his life. Hutchens responded, later recalling:

With a simple prayer I did just that, and nothing has been quite the same since that day.

A spiritual dimension had been added to my life. By a miracle, which I’ll never fully understand, God invaded my life and became a reality to me through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible became a new book because I began to understand its message. I read books Chaplain Hatch gave me which taught me basic truths of the Bible. Being linked to God through Christ affected every area of my life, supplying the meaning and purpose I had previously sought in vain.

We hear the phrase “born again” used loosely to describe an extremely dedicated or even pushy Christian. We have here, however, a perfect illustration of the true meaning of the phrase. Even though we are alive physically, we are dead spiritually until Jesus Christ comes into our hearts. In him, our spiritual beings come into existence for the first time and dwell within us. I have friends who have no recollection of not having this relationship with Jesus. Others, like myself and Jim Hutchens, discovered this profound mystery much later. For some of us, the obstacles to grace were almost insurmountable. In the end, however, the first and lasting step of faith is as simple as reaching out and taking hold of a quarter.