Knowing Jesus isn’t dull. In fact, if you think about it, it’s pretty exciting! Conversing with the maker of the universe? Whew! It’s enough to blow your mind! Yet, it is amazing how many Christians don’t really think of their relationship with the Lord that way. When I was lost and in the world I can’t remember how many times dull and miserable-looking Christians tried to convert me.
They’d drone, “You need to meet Jesus Christ and make Him Lord of your life,” in that nasal Southern monotone. Most of the Christians I met looked so sick, broke and bored that I felt sorry for them. I thought I should be converting them! Their lives didn’t appeal to me at all! Most were fighting all kinds of afflictions – and they wanted me to get in the same boat with them!
If you happened to actually find Jesus through their witness, they’d let you in on how it was going to be, saying, “Now once you get born again the devil will beat you and bust you. He’ll stomp on you, kick your head off, rip your skin off your back. So get ready, he’s gonna get you soon! But remember, he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”
Well, they didn’t say it quite like that. But close. Real close! That is just how it was when I was a young man. I used to think to myself, “Man, I’m gonna wait till the end! When I’m on my deathbed I’m going to ask Jesus to come into my life. I’ll slide into heaven on a tight home run! Whoa! Safe! That way I won’t have to get run over by the devil.”
It is a sad fact that most of the Christians I knew weren’t living what they were preaching on Sunday. I’d hear them say, “God is love,” and then criticize and fight with each other two seconds after service ended. I thought they were a bunch of hypocrites. “At least I do what I say,” I’d reason to myself. I was thinking about sin, talking about sin and doing sin! No hypocrisy here! I was going to hell with gusto and figured that ought to count for something.
Jesus Reached Out to Me
When I finally came to the end of my rope, I was a rock musician, doing drugs and drinking a fifth of whiskey a day. Yet the Lord cared enough about my soul that He put it on the hearts of caring Christians around the world who partner with Billy Graham Ministries.
They put Dr. Graham on primetime national television and for that I’ll be eternally grateful. Because it was through his televised crusade that I came to know God.
He showed me a loving and merciful God who was strong enough to wipe the sin out of my heart and compassionate enough to take me just as I was. That night, before a gig in Boston, I walked into a little hotel bathroom and met God. I found out right then and there that He was not enough, He was too much.
It wasn’t enough that Jesus came into my heart and saved my soul from hell. It wasn’t enough that He lifted the weight off my calloused heart. It wasn’t enough that He miraculously freed me from the addiction to alcohol and drugs. It wasn’t just enough. It was too much! More love than I could grasp and more than I could use.
God gave more than I could receive.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Jesse Duplantis, minister of the Gospel, motivational speaker, television personality, and best-selling author, has been in full-time ministry since 1976 and is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries, located in the Greater New Orleans area of south Louisiana in the United States of America. With over four decades of sharing his unique blend of humor and faith around the world, generations of believers have been inspired by his messages and countless numbers have come to know Jesus Christ as Savior through his ministry.
Known for his unflinching, status-quo-breaking messages and humorous take on experiences in the life of the believer, Jesse continues to draw large audiences of believers through social media, television, and meetings held around the world. With speaking engagements booked years in advance, Jesse Duplantis continues to keep an intense traveling schedule, flying throughout the United States and the world preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With no booking agents pursuing meetings for him and no set fees imposed upon churches for speaking engagements, Jesse chooses his outreach meetings based on the same two criteria he always has: invitations that come in and prayer over each one. This uncommon way of scheduling in today’s world means Jesse’s many followers may find him speaking in some of the largest churches and venues in America and the world, as well as a great many small and growing congregations, too. No church is too big or small for the Holy Spirit, as he says.
Side by side with his wife Cathy Duplantis, the co-founder and chief of staff of Jesse Duplantis Ministries and the senior pastor of Covenant Church in Destrehan, Louisiana, Jesse continues to fulfill his life’s calling by daily taking up the Great Commission of Jesus Christ: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Through social media, television broadcasts, books, and other ministry products, as well as through many evangelistic meetings, the JDM website, the JDM app, and Voice of the Covenant magazine, Jesse Duplantis continues to see growth in his ministry and expand each year while maintaining his roots. Jesus is the center of his life. The salvation of lost people and the growth of believers is the purpose of his ministry. And for both he and his wife, every day is another day to “Reach People and Change Lives, One Soul at a Time.”