As promised; my mentors, posted in chronological order.
I met Jim Britts when I was sixteen. I was in the middle of a phase of my life where I was into a lot of evil, stupid things, and had no clue where I was going to go in life past my own anarchist rebellion and occultic aspirations. I was the epitome of an individal controlled by Satan. If it weren’t for my chance meeting with Jim that day, I would not be a Christian today.
See, I was an anarchist, but I used the Cross of Christ as a way of garnering support for my cause – not because I actually wanted to serve Jesus, as might have looked better. Yes, I know that I was an idiot for doing something so bad. I thought I was a Christian, in some ways, but by my actions and actual beliefs, I was evil. When I met Britts, I attempted to get his support for the “cause” (that is, total rebellion against societal structure), and agreed to meet with him in a Wendy’s to discuss it. He quickly and decisively rebuked me for my unBiblical views, and told me flat out that I was not observing Christ’s teachings. This got me to actually think about where I was with God, and whether I really believed in Him.
Jim is always, if one looks past the surface of his messages to the youth in his Souled Out messages, stressing that – Scripture! See, he was the first person to ever tell me about the complete infallibility of Scripture, how it is completely perfect and has no flaws. With his help, I was able to get into the apologetics I know of now, and was able to start taking into consideration all the major implications of it.
If Scripture is true, as he says, then one has to see the entire Bible as the guide to our lives. It is the most valuable thing in the whole world to us as a document, yes? When I first heard these things from him, it was at a time in which I was surrounded by poeple who first think that the Bible has a couple small flaws, and then use those flaws as their excuse for completely ignoring the Book itself.
What I also learned from Jim is that one needs to put oneself last in priority in order to glorify God; selfishness has no place in our world if we already know that we are going to live forever! Sin has no place in one’s life if one puts others in front (after all, sin is not only selfish – it always hurts others). And one can serve God so much more if one is not distracting their life with stimluating and distracting baubles and toys brought by the devil. Thus I learned that JOY stands for Jesus, Others, and then Yourself – this is the order of important people in your life.
I understand that Jim and I come to some arguments when it comes to different things. He thinks of using some of the distractions of the world as a great way to spread the word of Christ (hence the TVs in New Song), while I think that sticking to music and personal proselytizing is best. I don’t see eye to eye with a few of the things he teaches, and he probably does not approve of my rather dim view of humanity. But when push comes to shove, I owe the man for how he has been so dedicated to seeing me grow spiritually; I hope one day to be able to help him in something just as significant.
-yours,
Blake
