I am Jonathan Lee Smolders. Born August 7, 1985 to my parents Julius and Sheila, I was raised in a Christian home and came to believe in and have faith in Christ at an early age. But in 2004 I went through a period of rebellion. Even though I knew the truth, I ignored the reality of it. I rebelled against God and the truth of his Word. I did not care anymore if what I was doing was sin, I just wanted to live for myself – my own pleasure. I was disobedient to what I knew His word said. This led me down a devastating path which took me deeper and farther into sin than I ever thought I would or could go. My utter depravity and my very real need for Christ became quite aparent. However, God is loving, gracious, and faithful to His promises. He got my attention, and I could not handle the way I was living anymore. God spoke to me through Scripture:
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:1-10).
Through it He told me that I had rebelled: I was a Child of wrath and a son of disobedience, living to satisfy the lust of my flesh. But He also said that He had died as my substitute, paying for the debt of my sin; it was by grace through faith that He had saved me, and not by anything that I had done. Then He hit me with verse 10: I was a new creation which He made to do good works which He had prepared for me to do! It was at that point that I submitted my life to Christ: my desires and plans – everything!
Now, with the strength that Christ supplies, I am walking in obedience and submission to Him and to His word. I am no longer living for myself, but for Jesus. He is leading and guiding me! Life is still hard at times, but I am excited to see where He is taking me and what He wants to do with my life! Though spending the majority of my life on the West Coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, I am currently living in Sexsmith Alberta with my wife Karen, where I am going into my third year (of four) at Peace River Bible Institute.
