It was about two years after I have committed my life to the Lord that I went through what theologians call backsliding experience.

I really like the word backsliding because truly if you're not going up, you're going down.

It's that simple. There is no standing still in the Christian life. And I hate to say it, I had to learn it the very hard way, the very difficult way.

But through that experience, God taught me a lot of things. Oh yes, oh, oh, during that time, I kept going to church.

But my heart was called toward God, my heart was called toward God's word, my heart was called

toward Christians, my heart was called toward spiritual walk of any type.

And that is why I know there are many Christians backslide right in the pews in the church.

You don't have to leave the church to backslide.

You can backslide right here.

And for a period of 18 months, I sought to do my own thing.

I got angry with God when my mother died, and so I blamed God for all kinds of things.

Oh, I've never despised God. No, I've never done that.

But I had a cold love toward him.

Some of you are going through that experience right now, for whatever reason.

Backsliding never happens overnight.

It begins with taking baby steps.

Slowly but surely, my body was going to the church, but my heart was far from the Lord. My heart was firmly established in the world.

And eventually, of course, I was in the deep waters of the world. And that, of course, until my boat

hit the rock, and I walked up at God's mourners bench.

C.S. Lewis, whom I caught a great deal, he made a statement that I have always remembered it.

It's one of the most powerful statements that he ever made. Listen carefully.

He said, the fastest road to hell is the gradual one,

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