Welcome to my blog!

I know just about every blog on the web starts this way but since I can’t think of a better way to start here goes... Welcome to my blog :-)

I am Solid Iron. I am a young man in my mid-twenties who is a member of a Canadian Reformed church. I am a born again Christian.

There is a lot of misunderstanding about the term “born again”. Some think it refers to people who used to live particularly sinful lives but have now cleaned up their act. Others think it is reserved for those Christians who have had some kind of “experience” or who can point to a single incident in time that turned their life around. I use it in the sense that all true believers who have the Spirit of Jesus Christ living in their hearts are born again Christians. In reality there is no Christian except the born again Christian.

I don’t consider myself to have had a conversion experience as such but I will say that the Lord suddenly and powerfully enlightened my heart and mind and caused me to surrender myself to Him and place my trust in Him.

I was born into a Canadian Reformed family and have been a member of these churches all my life. For most of my life I struggled with knowing whether or not I was a true Christian. I tried to make myself acceptable to God but I knew nothing of the ‘inexpressible joy’ that Peter talks about. I worked hard at being a good Christian but only because I was afraid of the consequences. In my heart of hearts I often questioned why being a Christian was supposed to be so wonderful and joyful. As far as I was concerned it wasn't at all but I supposed it was better then going to hell. I tried hard to convince myself that I was a child of God. I needed proof and I kept looking to myself for that proof. I would often despair and assume that I was probably reprobate and that there was nothing I could do about it.

I tried hard to live a “good Christian life” and for the most part (to the casual outside observer) I probably pulled it off. I certainly looked like a good Christian young man. Nothing I did was out of thankfulness but only out of fear and guilt. Fear of going to hell. Fear of coming face to face with my own sinfulness when facing the guilt I would feel when I did something really bad. I graded sins in my mind. Some things weren't so bad. Smoking, drinking... these were minor sins. Drugs, strip clubs and pre-marital sex... these were big sins.

I felt no thankfulness and knew nothing of the love of God that is in Jesus Christ.

I knew nothing of the Gospel. Somehow, despite my years of learning in the Christian faith, I didn't realize that the Gospel is all about Jesus Christ. It wasn't until I heard some music by my favorite Christian artist that I realized that Jesus had already paid for my sin. He had already paid the price to make me acceptable before God. All I had to do was put my faith, my hope, and my trust in Him. Suddenly everything I had been taught started to make sense. Expressions like “the finished work of Christ” started to click. It was all already done for me. I no longer had to strive to be acceptable to God. I only had to surrender, to accept and walk in the new life Christ Jesus had already obtained for me.

In retrospect I can see that right from the beginning God was at work in my life. It was precisely because God loves me and wanted me for himself that I was so wrestles and troubled by not knowing if I really was a Christian. God wasn’t going to let me rest until I found my rest in Jesus Christ.

Since coming to true faith in the Lord Jesus I have discovered a great deal of people, particularly young people, in the Canadian Reformed churches have this same problem. There is an entire generation (my generation and younger) who are somehow missing the Gospel.