The grace of Regeneration: My 4 year anniversary

I am not superstitious about dates, places or rituals but I know for sure that on this day 4 years ago I encountered the God of the universe, my own sinfulness, & the unspeakable joy of knowing Jesus Christ as my Savior & Lord. At the time of my conversion I was 19, dropped out of school, living in gross immorality, had no conviction of sin in my life, bitter, prideful, & worst of all I called myself a true Christian. On Sept. 18, 2005 I attended a church drama/service with my girlfriend Amanda (now wife) out of curiosity & by the end of that night I had no doubt in my mind that I was a new person in Christ & I was going to marry Amanda someday. I won't go into details but I will make a few comparisons to the (pre-regenerate Phil) & the now 4 years later (Phil in Christ).

So its Pre-Christ vs. In Christ.
1.) PRE-CHRIST: Living for me, serving my sinful appetites & desires by all means VS. IN-CHRIST: Living for the King, daily fighting to die to self & by all means kill sin in my life by God's grace.
2.) PRE-CHRIST: Smoking weed, drunk, hittin clubs, chancing girls & cash & trying to wake up in time for church on Sunday VS. IN-CHRIST: Praying 'God be merciful to me a sinner', pursuing holiness, hitting the streets to tell em about the gospel, & waking up preaching on Sunday's about Christ crucified to bring sinners like me back to God.
3.) PRE-CHRIST: Loved sin, hate God, dead in sin, slaved to sin, full of lust, puttin up a front, never touched my bible, only prayed for selfish reasons, destroying my life & headed for Hell! VS. IN-CHRIST: Love God, hate sin, alive in Christ, slave to righteousness, full of the Spirit, humbling myself before God, In the Word daily as my bread & water, walking in prayer, not wasting my life, & headed for heaven because THERE IS NO CONDEMNATION/JUDGMENT FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST!!!

In John 3:7-8 Jesus spoke about the amazing process of being 'born again' by God's power: "You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." I, like every sinner who has become a Christian, was born into God's family by the Spirit. It wasn't anything in me or anything I did but rather God's power that tranformed me from a hard hearted rebel into someone passionate to know & please God. We cannot control the Spirit & this is clear that "Salvation is of the Lord". He gets ALL the glory & we get unspeakable eternal joy. Not to us oh Lord, but to Your name be the glory.

When I meditate on God's grace & goodness in my life & especially the last 4 years I can hardly keep myself from breaking down. I just want to say I love Jesus, I love all that he is, all that he has done as God, King, Savior, Lord, Mediator, Redeemer, Friend, Judge, Servant, & Creator. Above all, I'm thankful that he gave me His life so that I can know, love, & enjoy fellowship with God as my treasure forever. What can compare to knowing the God of universe? $100 trillion dollars, cars, houses, fame, success, accomplishments? You can have them, just give me Jesus. I will count everything as nothing compared to knowing Jesus as my Lord & I pray that I can mean that with all my heart until the day I drop.