Chapter
16

When I was six years old, I was sitting in the pews each week at Walker Baptist Church in Walker, Louisiana. My dad had recently opened his pharmacy in Walker, and it was important for him that we engage with the community that he was serving as a pharmacist. Part of that engagement was that we would attend church every Sunday to make our presence known. I remember the pastor there to be a good man. It’s at Walker Baptist that I made my own profession of faith and was baptized.

 

I had been attending a Baptist church since I was born. First in Opelousas and then at Broadmoor Baptist Church when we moved to Baton Rouge when I was two. My mom was a Sunday school teacher, and I was a “Royal Ambassador.” That’s what the young boys were called who were in a small group and were learning how to tell others about Jesus. When we moved to Walker, I was getting older (six years old), and I was able to make some choices of my own. One thing taught to me at that time was, “Did I want to choose to go away from God and end up in Hell, or Did I want to accept God’s forgiveness for my sins and accept His free gift of Grace that was offered through His Son Jesus paying the price for my sins?” The choice sure did seem simple and direct to me. I chose the second option.

 

I didn’t really comprehend the depth of that decision at age six. I still didn’t really understand it for many years later. I have a vivid memory in my head of being in my car with two other friends from high school. I was driving them home after a Young Life meeting. I despised Young Life because the kids in that group treated me so badly. Once on an overnight retreat, the boys put dog mess in my sleeping bag. I didn’t know about the dog mess until I woke up the next morning with crap rubbed into my clothes.

 

It was in the unlikely setting of Young Life that I remember driving two friends home after a weekly gathering that we all started talking about what the leaders had discussed that night. I remember saying to my friends that I thought what was taught tonight was completely wrong. They asked what part??? I was puzzled that they even had to ask. I said that the leader had said that even bad people could accept Jesus. I said that he even said that a murderer could end up in Heaven. I said that there is a point that a person’s “badness” is just too much.

 

My friends were now the ones that looked puzzled. They said, “Eddie, that’s the crux of Christianity. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past. Jesus paid the price for it all. The murderer is offered the same Grace as you are. God truly Forgives us all. We just have to accept His Forgiveness.” Years later I understood this Truth.

 

Luke 6

 

37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

39 He also told them this parable: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.

41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.