This season, we’re blessed with a set of Lenten devotionals by contributing author Lee Hinkle.  Find out more about Lee at the bottom of this article, or at hinkledownunder.com.

Reading

John 12:9-11 (ESV)

Meditation

C.S. Lewis describes his conversion in Surprised by Joy:

“You must picture me alone in that room at Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

Conversion stories can be great to listen to or read. I love talking to people about their journey with God. I love reading stories of change. We hear some of those stories and think that perhaps our story is not enough, but that is not true.

[pullquote]We may think that our Christian upbringing negates our conversion. It doesn’t.[/pullquote]We are Lazarus. We were dead and now we live. Our hope can be that many will believe in Jesus because they see that difference. It is the difference of someone who was dead but now is alive; something has changed in us.

We may desire a dramatic story. We may think that our Christian upbringing negates our conversion. It doesn’t. You were dead, and now you are alive.

Our lives can be so compelling to those around us because of our “Live-ness” that they would want to either know more, or never speak to us again. Through Jesus Christ we are made new.

Prayer

Father, thank you for bringing us from death to life; we praise you for saving us. Let our lives be one that attracts others to you and your glory. Amen.

Lenten Action

Praise God for His resurrection power in your life.

Write out your conversion story. It may be a one-time event. It may be an ongoing saga. It could be that you are still coming to grips with it. Write out your story.
• • •

Lee Hinkle is an American pastor who, with his family of 7, felt God’s call to pack up and plant a church in Fremantle, a town in Perth, Western Australia.  Last Summer, the Hinkles left Indianapolis and arrived in Oz to begin their work.  You can follow their adventures at hinkledownunder.com.