[Excerpts from the Kairos Talk, ‘A Christian’]

After I came to Houston, I spent 10 years living in the dark.  The dark of running away, trying to hide from God.  The dark of being a criminal defense lawyer.  The dark of trying desperately to figure out what to do about my estranged wife.  The dark of finally getting a divorce.  I still wasn’t really looking for God, but I was getting real beat up, and desperately seeking help.  And crazy as it seems, Jesus was still there.

I started going to church; and praying; and reading and studying the Bible.  I got involved in a Sunday School class and met some guys that were involved in Kairos, and after that I just sorta took off.  I got closer and closer to God. I began to realize what it meant to experience the mercy of Jesus. I started to realize what God really wanted me to do with my life.  You want to hear what it is?  He wants me to seek His Face every day; to talk to Jesus; to commune with the Holy Spirit; to listen to what He says and try to do it, on a moment by moment basis.

As my Daddy would say, “I think God has got a good scald on me this time.”  I’m different, from the inside out.  I don’t even react the same to people and tribulations the way I used to; by being mad or scared or violent or bull-headed or impatient.  Now I actually make excuses for people who I used to say mean things to and about.  I am just astounded at how God has changed my heart about stuff.  I’m Amazed.

For about the last 12-13 years, I’ve been reading a devotional and reading the Bible, and praying and listening to God and meditating on what He says, nearly every day.  He has truly changed my whole life.   Early in the morning, before anyone else is awake, there I am, thinking about God and writing down the messages I get from Him.

          What is the point of this story?  It’s this:  Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to develop your relationship with Jesus, in your own heart.  When you do, He will manifest Himself in your life.

You can do this.  You know, it’s no accident that you are here today in this very place, listening to people talk about God and what He wants for your life.  And some of you, maybe not all of you, but probably a whole bunch of you, really want Jesus too.

If you do, you just need to surrender yourself to Him, and let Him live His life in you.  You can’t possibly do all the things that the Bible says you’re supposed to do to satisfy God.  The only way you can do them is if you surrender to Him and let Him do those things through you.  If you’ll do this, He will do His part.  You will begin to live the greatest adventure of your life, right here, right now.  You will begin to see God move in all kinds of ways and in all kinds of places.  And all you got to do is commit.  Commit to seek Jesus every day; to trust Him and obey Him every day. 

In order that in the future you may never ever be able to say that you have never been called by Jesus to be His disciple, I, Donald R. ‘Tex’ Tonroy, on this, the Sixteenth Day of May, in the year of our Lord, 2015, call each of YOU, in the Name of Jesus Christ, to be His disciple.