A Friend from the Past

I had a major surprise come to church last night at about 8pm. A roommate from my old college days was in town from Iowa. He works for a company based in here Tulsa. There is a church member from New Beginnings that works for the same company. Both men were riding on a plane together to Tulsa and our church member found out my old roommate was from Iowa and asked if he knew me.

So the church member gave my old roommate my e-mail address and he contacted me to see if we could meet after their business dinner last night. I told him that I would be at church until after 8pm and would give him a call to see if we could connect, but he decided to drive out to the church to meet me. We sat in my office and talked until after 10pm. I haven't seen him in about 25 years, but it was like we had never been apart, except that he was different and I was different. He was a believer now. A born again Christian. When I knew him back in college, neither of us were believers. In fact, if you were to ask my friend, he would tell you just how far he was from the Lord back then and so was I.

So, I asked him to share his testimony with me. He became born again when he was 40, which puts him in a really small percentage of adults who become born again after the age of 18. It just doesn't happen very often to adults, especially the older they get. He told me that he finally came to an end of himself. He started to attend church, but found out that was not the answer. He was challenged by a pastor about having a real faith and relationship in Jesus Christ, that the bible from cover to cover was the true Word of God, without error. This pastor discipled him. My friend is now a volunteer lay leader in his church for middle school boys. We started talking about some ministry conferences he as attended as a lay leader. I couldn't believe I was having this "faith" discussion with my friend from the past. If there was one guy that I thought would never be sitting in my office telling me about his testimony it would have been him. Sadly, he probably thought the same about me. So, I was able to share my testimony with him.

The conversation we had was SO uplifting. I was so filled up when I left the church I drove all of the way home with a huge smile on my face. Why? Because I had seen an old friend from the past that I hadn't seen in 25 years? Yes, but more so, because I know that my former lost friend has been found.

 "But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." Luke 15:32

This was the reason to celebrate! Praise GOD!....and thank you Lord, for allowing me to get to see my friend from the past last night.