By age seventeen I had already packed a lot of living into life. Even then I knew enough to recognize that the accumulation of more toys, the desperate search for approval, and the ceaseless striving for success just weren't cutting it. My spiritual experience that night at camp wasn't prompted by someone delivering a stirring message or by someone asking me three deep questions. I met Christ because while walking from a mess-hall gathering back to my cabin one night, I was suddenly penetrated by a single verse of Scripture that I had memorized as a kid: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to God's mercy He saved us."
He saved us. He… saved… us.
Just after nine o'clock that night, the words I'd read so many times before hit me in a fresh way. Could it really be true that God cared enough about me that He would make provision to save me? Even me?
On that night in eastern Wisconsin, the Holy Spirit imparted to me whatever presence of mind I needed to understand Titus 3:5, and I met Jesus Christ in an authentic way. I remember throwing open the doors of my heart to Him in what at the time felt like some sort of amazing grace attack.
-- Bill Hybels in Just Walk Across the Room
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