One evening in the fall of 1944, a cadet at the United States Naval Academy was reading the Bible. By his own admission, he was being “condescendingly dutiful.” This was the attitude that he had seen from the professing Christians in the small town in Oklahoma where he grew up. He regarded himself as no different, but this evening would be different. Something happened when he read Mark 1:17:

"Follow me,” Jesus told them, “and I will make you fish for people."

This was such a life-changing experience that he had difficulty sharing it with his parents, but he finally did. Four years later, in a Father’s Day letter to his dad, he described his encounter with Christ in these words:

As I was reading though the Bible, I was suddenly stopped, shaken almost, and it seemed as if my whole being was flooded with conviction and realization that God was trying to speak to me. At first, I couldn’t believe it, yet there is no possibility for doubting, but it just seemed unreasonable to my mind, why, and it was so unexpected. From that moment, I knew, and I was determined gladly to follow no matter what the cost might be . . . But what could God want with me—a person so unworthy, even indifferent. It was the most unexpected turn of my life, but what a noble turn, a turn to Him to be a fisher of men.^[i]

What this encounter with the Lord meant was not clear to the cadet at that time, but over the course of his life he came to understand God’s meaning and purpose for his life.

The person I am talking about is my father-in-law, who was also my first spiritual father and whom I called Dad. That evening at the US Naval Academy in 1943 was a pivot point for Dad. He was twenty-one years old and was enjoying life. He was the oldest of two boys in a financially stable family, and he was his parents’ favorite. School was a delight to him; he was recognized and celebrated by his teachers and served as corps commander of his ROTC unit and drum major of the band. His greatest distinction was graduating valedictorian of his high school. This was a stepping stone for him to gain a congressional appointment to the naval academy—a rare, prestigious opportunity.

Dad grew up in the Baptist tradition. He knew about the Lord but didn’t know the Lord personally until that evening in 1943. His encounter with Jesus was similar to the apostle Paul’s—both were intercepted by Jesus. Consider the following comparisons:

Both the apostle Paul and Dad were powerful intellectuals. Paul was from Tarsus, located in Cilicia (modern-day Turkey), but studied in Jerusalem under the best teacher of his day, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). Dad was valedictorian of his class—a major high school in Oklahoma. By the fall of 1943, he was well on his way to a successful academic career. He graduated in June 1944 in the top 10 percent of his class at the naval academy.
Both men were raised in biblical religious traditions, were dutiful, and were seeking to live according to their own will. They knew about Jesus but didn’t know him. Neither was really seeking Jesus, but both were sovereignly intercepted by Jesus, not of their choosing or because of anything they had done, but because of God’s grace.
Both men had a personal encounter with Jesus that surprised them. The encounters included visceral personal experiences. Paul had to ask who had intercepted him as he dropped to the ground blinded by a bright light in the middle of the day and hearing the words “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Paul (known then as Saul) asked, “Who are you Lord?”^[^ii] That evening in 1943 when Dad was intercepted, he knew the Lord was speaking to him—there was no question in his mind. He didn’t understand why the Lord would speak to him, and he felt unworthy of the Lord’s personal attention.
Both were initially blind; they saw little of God’s purpose for their lives. But God sent his agents to both men to help them along the way. Ananias was sent to Paul within three days of his encounter with Christ. Then Barnabas became a spiritual father to Paul to help him gain acceptance with the first members and leaders of the church. For Dad, the Lord sent John Streater to disciple him while they both served on the aircraft carrier USS Lexington in World War II. These human agents helped Paul and Dad understand what it meant to be a disciple and how the Lord was going to use them for his purpose.

After being intercepted by Jesus, both Paul and Dad entered a time of transition and preparation for the work they had been assigned. Because of Paul’s elevated level of biblical literacy, all he needed was the revelation that Jesus was both Lord and Christ.^[^iii] Then he connected the Old Testament prophecies about the Christ to Jesus and became a leading Christian apologist. Paul’s challenge was to convince the early Christians that he was no longer a persecutor of Jesus but a disciple of Jesus. Dad’s transition and preparation started with becoming much more biblically literate. Then, in time, he met and built relationships with the godly men with whom he would serve and fulfill God’s purpose for his life. Dad developed biblically literacy that served him well in his service to the Lord.

Both Paul and Dad lived well before the Lord and modeled how to walk in a personal relationship with Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, and consequently they bore much fruit for the glory of God. This happened because they were keenly aware of the grace of God; Jesus chose them, they did not choose Jesus. They were sovereignly intercepted and transformed by Jesus. This made them humble, submitted, and teachable. They were committed to being people who were regulated by Scripture alone. This means they were committed to biblical literacy and a life regulated by Scripture.

Jesus made it clear that those who abide in him will bear much fruit.^[iv] Abiding in Christ is living regulated by Scripture. Paul and Dad so lived and bore much fruit; they matured in Christ and helped many others do the same.

When Jesus intercepts our lives, this is the result: faithful committed servants who reflect Jesus in thought, word, and action. Such people live in the reality of Paul’s mandate to his spiritual son Timothy:

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. (1 Timothy 6:12 ESV)

Paul and Dad fought the good fight of fight fully aware that all the glory goes to God alone, because no one can live this way without divine empowerment. And no one chooses divine empowerment; divine empowerment is given to those chosen by God. The only proper response to being intercepted by Jesus is to be his servant. Paul and Dad were servants of Jesus and modeled for us how to live well before the Lord.