Do not judge and you will not be judged.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and it will be given to you.
Luke 6: 37-38

30 November 2009

St Augustine's conversion

St. Augustine, in his classic devotional work "Confessions", writes of his conversion experience and newfound love for God. Augustine had been a vile and wicked man. His life was filled with revelry, drunkenness, and sexual exploits.
But the God of heaven used a most curious providence to draw Augustine to Himself. One day, while in the gardens, he heard some children playing, and singing a song with the words "tolle lege, tolle lege" - "...take and read...take and read..." Under great spiritual compulsion and conviction, he obtained a copy of the Scriptures, and opened it randomly to the book of Romans, chapter 13, verses 13-14.
In this passage he read the inspired words of God penned by the Apostle Paul to the church at Rome some 300 years before he was even born, 
"13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. This was a vivid description of Augustine's life, and the remedy for such a life appeared in the next verse.14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 

Jesus Christ was his only answer. His life was transformed in an instant, in the power of regeneration. 
In his Confessions he writes of his lucid transformation, his salvation through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
He said, "You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." 
After his conversion, Augustine wrote voluminously concerning the Lord Jesus Christ; the Confessions, though, are his most famous work.

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