Am I, or am I not a Christian?

In my nearly one-hundred-year life, I have come to realize that human existence encompasses both physical and spiritual aspects. While our physical needs can easily be met with money for food, clothing, and shelter, fulfilling our spiritual or emotional needs presents a far greater challenge. We all yearn for happiness, love, popularity, and respect.

Achieving spiritual happiness demands discipline. For instance, what exactly is happiness? Where can one find it? Temptations abound, and well-meaning suggestions from friends and relatives only add to the confusion.

I can only share my personal experience. After World War II, in a bombed-out building, a group of people gathered for a religious service. I was seven years old, on the verge of turning eight. The preacher wore a ceremonial outfit like those found in a Catholic church. He held a piece of printed paper depicting palm trees and a donkey. Somehow, I made a connection between this image and the prayer our mother had taught us, and that prayer has remained with me to this day.

Over time, I slipped into complacency. I paid lip service and went along with the flow. I attended church on Christmas and Easter. I vividly remember the facial expression of a Lutheran pastor in Spencer, Iowa, when I informed him that I attended church but did not want to become overly religious. I failed to teach my family according to Deuteronomy 6 because I did not know that it was my duty.

Many years later, while I was hooked up to an artificial lung in intensive care, the Lord Jesus appeared to me and commanded me to get up and teach. I did so and created the Morton Buildings training curriculum that is still being followed today.

During that time, I was captivated by a television preacher named Robert Schuller. His message of becoming a “possibility thinker” truly resonated with me. I even traveled all the way to California to attend worship services at the Crystal Cathedral he had constructed. However, I was deeply disappointed when I later learned about the reported corruption within the church leadership.

I read all of Og Mandino’s books on self-improvement. At work, my job responsibilities increased, and it was rumored that I might be the chosen successor for the presidency held by my boss, a self-proclaimed atheist. About that time, I came across Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” I treasured my job, the income, and the prestige—and most of all, the needed MBI medical insurance to pay for the ever-increasing medical needs of my wife, who contracted the crippling disease of rheumatoid arthritis.

But subconsciously, my childhood-instilled conscience had me in its clutches. As a little child, our mother had a way of punishing the misdeeds of my younger sister and me by looking at us sternly and saying, “Is your conscience bothering you?” Our ensuing red faces were proof that it was.

The scene in The Andy Griffith Show in which Opie received a new slingshot, shot at a bird, and killed it spoke volumes about conscience. Opie’s facial expression tells the entire story.

Much later in life, while writing my biography and The Evolution of an Industry, I was forced to reflect on life’s encounters at various points—moments which I believe the Holy Spirit guided me through. This reflection opened my eyes and led me to eventually accept God and the Holy Trinity.

I also discovered that my former boss, the self-proclaimed atheist, was a devout Christian. He used this facade of atheism to hide the incredible amounts of money he funneled to those in need. I know because I was a recipient. His interest in the baptism of a contemporary, and that man’s acceptance of Jesus shortly before his passing, convinced me that my boss too accepted Jesus before he died.

If anyone reading this story is inclined to accept Christ as their Savior, I ask that you open your heart to what Jesus Himself said in Matthew 22:37–39:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Everyone is solely responsible for achieving their own spiritual happiness. No one can do it for them. There are no shortcuts—except one: ask Jesus to come into your heart and let Him guide you.

Start by giving thanks. Thank the Lord for your very existence, your good looks, and so on. Many people call this practice “counting their blessings.” Take time to study the Scriptures. The wisdom revealed through historic events cannot be obtained through modern, instant-gratification communication devices. Acquiring and applying true knowledge takes time.

In the 15th century, the German monk Martin Luther threw his inkwell at the devil while translating the Holy Bible from Latin into German. Having recovered his composure, he identified five foundational principles of achieving spiritual clarity, which became the foundation of the Protestant Reformation:

• SOLA SCRIPTURA: The Bible is the sole written divine revelation that provides instruction on how to bind the soul of the believer to the Almighty.
• SOLA GRATIA: Only God’s grace provides individual salvation.
• SOLA FIDE: Justification before God is by faith alone.
• SOLUS CHRISTUS: God’s only Son died for our sins and is the sole mediator for our salvation.
• SOLI DEO GLORIA: To God alone belongs all the glory.

May you find comfort in John 15: 5.  

 

Jesus said, I am the vine you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

 

May God bless you.

 

Rudy