Ignite UK

From the time I was conceived through the present, I have been involved in the church.  My mother has served the church by helping out with children on Sunday mornings for as long as I can remember, and my father is an usher and a deacon at my parent’s church in Bowling Green, KY:  Eastwood Baptist Church.  From my beginning, Christianity has been the constant theme in my family.

When I was in the second grade, I remember going to vacation bible school back at Eastwood.  I remember Pastor Paul Welch making an invitation during bible school calling those who were not believers in Christ to accept Him as Lord and Savior.  So, like all my friends, we went to the pastor and prayed.  I was baptized shortly thereafter.

For the following 13 years, I was a pretty good kid.  I was at church when the doors were open.  I was a good student.  I respected adults.  I even went on five mission trips.  The problem was that I had no passion to be at church.  Yeah, I liked the softball and the fellowship with friends, but I never wanted to go for the sake of worship or for the sake of praying or for the sake of studying the Bible.  In fact, I pretty much hated going for the service.  I would always wake up on Sunday mornings hoping I did not have to go to church that day.

In 2002, I moved to Lexington, Kentucky to attend the University of Kentucky.  I remember that by this time in my life I completely doubted my salvation.  Was my experience from second grade real?  Did it save me?  I knew in my heart that it ultimately did not.  It so happened in August of 2002 that a friend from Bowling Green recommended me to read a book by a pastor named John Piper called “Let the Nations Be Glad.”  I had always been a big reader and a person big on missions, at least the traveling aspect, so I thought this could be a good read.  This was a very difficult book as it addressed missions throughout the Bible from Old Testament Israel to the New Testament Church from a Hebrew/Greek language understanding of missions.  But I remember that at the end of the book Pastor Piper said that one could not be scared into Heaven.  In other words, one will not become a Christian simply by understanding Hell is a terrible place of fire and punishment.  Jesus is not a scapegoat for those who wish to not go to Hell.  And then it hit me.  All of these years I had been “scared” into salvation.  I didn’t want to go to Hell.  I didn’t want to burn or suffer.  Not that anyone does, but I also didn’t want Jesus.  That is the kicker.  I never knew Christ.  I just hoped my prayer from second grade was good enough to get me out of the fire.

A few days after reading this book at about 1:00 a.m., Jesus came to me and took my heart so that He could be glorified in my life.  I understood that I was a sinner and that God is holy.  I understood that my sin prevented me from a relationship with God.  But I also understood that through faith in Christ I might be forgiven.  I knelt beside by dorm room bed and cried out to Jesus begging for forgiveness as I repented of my sins.  Every day since that day I thank Him for the eternal life He has granted me and for His wonderfully amazing grace.  I thank Him not because I have eternal life, not because I am granted freedom from Hell, and not because the kingdom of heaven is mine.  I thank my God through Jesus Christ because I am justified.  I thank my God through Jesus Christ because I am now a friend of God.  More so, I am in the family of God.  The relationship of knowing God is eternal life, and that is the centrality of salvation.  For His grace freely bestowed on me, I am eternally grateful.  My desire now is to please my Lord and Savior in my thoughts, actions, and words each moment I’m alive, helping to edify the Church, and to bring the gospel to the lost.

To God be the glory!  Sola Dei Gloria!  (Ephesians 2),

Jon Canler