James Malveaux

Romans 5:8

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." As believers in Jesus Christ our lives have been transformed by one event that occured in our lifetime. Even the way we keep time by years, our timetable has been divided by the death of one man. Not an ordinary man...

A man who is 100 percent God and was 100 percent man. Notice, I said "is" 100 percent God and "was" 100 percent man. Jesus Christ being fully God and fully man walked upon this planet over 2000 years ago to be crucified upon a cross. Wood that came from a tree. A tree which symbolized the same tree which brought Jesus to earth in the first place. The forbidden tree which Adam and Eve was commanded to not eat from, or they would surely die. His death brought us life again. And so the same Jesus has done for me.

I was a man locked inside of bondages that I thought were pleasures. Growing up in south Louisiana, our culture is quoted by a french statement which says "Laissez les bons temps rouler", when translated means, " Let the good times roll. And indeed I let it roll. Whether it was rolling marijuana to smoke, rolling down different types of alcohol, rolling into another club, or rolling over to a woman in my bed. I had been rolling in what seemed like good times. But it wasn't good times. After losing several jobs, losing several hundreds of dollars over time, after contracting sexual viruses, and after hearing a best friend was almost stabbed. I knew that death was around the corner.

A Sunday morning in March 2010 would be a Sunday that would create a new timetable in my life from B.C to A.D. Before I knew Jesus Christ and after I knew that Jesus Christ died for my sins. I attended a church that a friend invited me to several times, which who would later become my wife, and found myself in the back of this building sitting down. The Pastor comes to the podium and begins to pray. Tears began to fall down my face. This man who I had never known began to call out specific things going on my life and I knew at that moment it wasn't a man up there, but God speaking through him directly to me.

At the end of the service the Pastor asked all who would like to come up to pray for salvation and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. I remember walking down this isle and realizing it felt like I wasn't moving my body, but something moving me. Later I would find out this was the pull of the Holy Spirit. This would be the start of a journey with Christ that would literally transform my life for ever.