'Lazarus, come out'

I was watching a video on YouTube the other day by a preacher called RW Glenn. He was talking about a thing called ‘irresistible grace’. I had never heard it before but when he started explaining what it meant it made me start to giggle. I was laughing like a little kid because it was the first time someone had described what had happened to me when I became a Christian.

When people talk about their conversion they often point to a specific sermon, or bible passage, song or even words on a plastic carrier bag (that’s another story). For me I can remember very little of what was said, sung and sold.

What I do know was that I was an atheist at a Billy Graham rally! I am aware that I listened to an old american guy who talked about sin and God and hell. I had heard all that before. This time it was different. It was like being in a movie where suddenly it goes silent. It is silent but you can still see everyone else moving their mouths but no sound is coming out. It felt to me as if I was inside a bubble. Into that bubble came a voice saying one word.

JASON.

My name. The voice just said my name in a calm, gentle way, like someone trying to wake me from sleep. Calm but with purpose. It is totally weird but it was like I knew the voice, had heard it all my life in the background ‘noise’ of the world, had sensed it whispering to me in answer to my questions.

This was my moment of irresistible grace. I knew this voice was the voice of the one true God. What else could I do? I woke up, got out of my chair and was born again.