Years ago when I was beginning my Freshman year at Baylor University, a long, long, time ago, a James Robinson Crusade came through Waco. James Robinson used to hold crusades throughout Texas and other States, but most recently he has had a ministry feeding starving children in Africa. However, at that time he was still holding crusades. I had started Baylor, following the footsteps of my sister, and desiring to be in the ministry in some way, but my entrance exams into Baylor were not what you would call “stellar”, so I was on the Dean’s list only not on the high end, but on the end that said, “This guy might not make it!” Do you know what I mean? This meant even within those early summer school grades, I was having quite a struggle just hanging on to “C” level. You might have even said I was doing some “scuba diving”! One night during the crusade a friend came from across the hall in my dorm and said, “Hey, let’s go to the James Robinson Crusade.” Having not much else to do at the time, I thought, “Why not? Nothing was really going right.”
I have absolutely no idea what the subject of his sermon was that night, but I voiced this prayer before the service started, “Lord, if you want me at all, you’d better call me tonight or forever hold your peace.” Now I was already saved, that is, I had already asked Jesus into my heart as my Savior. I knew I was heavenward bound, but I was just calling out to Him to see if He was listening. Like I said, I have no idea what the sermon was on, but at the end of his service, in the invitational time, Rev. Robinson quoted Romans 10:13, which says, “Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” I knew right then that He wanted me for a special reason, so I surrendered my life completely unto Him and unto His will.
Do you know what the word “skeptic” means? It describes someone who is always a doubter. It comes from the ancient Greeks who had a school of philosophy that always doubted ever knowing the truth, and when skepticism relates to Christianity, it means always doubting what the Bible says about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and any and everything about the Christian faith. A healthy skepticism is something that leads to finding the truth about a subject, but an unhealthy skepticism will never believe there is any truth. Such a person always lives in fear. Folks, I don’t want to get to the end of life and find out that there really is a heaven and a hell, do you? But even Christians sometimes have doubts and questions about their faith.
