My Sundays were all about Me!
My name is Butch Jablonski, and this is my Story.
I was born and raised Catholic. I remember being an altar boy and taking Communion. I knew about Jesus dying on the cross and resurrecting on the third day, but it was never explained to me why He died and what it meant to me.
At the age of thirty, sometime around March 2003, I was working in a customer’s house and they told me about one of my friends from high school, Steve Czarnecki. I hadn’t seen him for over 17 years, so I asked them if they ever got in contact with Steve to let him know I said “Hi” and to give me a call. The reason for wanting to talk to Steve was because every time I ran into one of my old buddies I used to party with, they would tell me how Steve had gone over the deep end and turned into a Jesus freak. Even though everyone was criticizing Steve, I was proud of him and my reply would be, “More power to him.” I loved God and prayed (the model prayer) and thought it was great that Steve loved the Lord. I thought of him being a very strong person and doing well—not partying, serving the Lord and always going to church.
I desired deep down inside to have what Steve had, but I was weak. My life has always been surrounded by drugs and alcohol, even though I loved God. Sin was my god and of course the Devil purposely kept Steve and me from crossing paths. It seems pretty odd that I never saw Steve. I was the only person that stuck up for him when it came to God.
About two weeks later I got a phone call from Steve. I was still at work, but my wife gave me the message when I got home. I called him back and we talked, catching up on the years and God was mentioned a lot. I invited Steve to stop by anytime and he did the same week. This wasn’t the same Steve Czarnecki from school. There was something different about him.
When Steve came walking in, from the foyer to the kitchen, he was looking around and he looked so uncomfortable. I didn’t know why. Everything looked normal to us. My wife was smoking a cigarette, blowing it out of the screen door and I was in my shorts and slippers without a shirt. My kids were in front of the TV watching who knows what, and our dog was looking for something to steal. Everything was perfectly normal!
Steve and I decided to go outside and talk. That’s when Steve started talking to me about church and God. I was happy for him and started telling him so. He then asked the question, “What about you?” My response was quick: “Oh, I love God and we pray every night.” I was thinking, “I’m right where he is, except for all the sin I am into.” So Steve asked me if I knew where I would go if I died. Of course I said heaven. I explained to him that I take care of my family, I never miss work, I provide, I put my family first, I love God and we pray, etc…not knowing that the Bible says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) We talked some more, and when he left, Steve invited us to church. My response was, “Yeah, it sounds good, we’ll see.”
About a month later Steve stopped by again, but I wasn’t home. A month later he dropped a Bible off at my house. More time went by and he called the house several times. The conversation always got around to him inviting me to church. I just had no desire to go to church or open the Bible he had left. Of course I couldn’t say that to him, so I was being nice, saying we would try. Some more time passed, and he dropped off some video tapes in my mailbox about Catholicism, which I had no desire to watch.
Steve stopped by again a month or two later. I stepped outside to talk to him. For the first time I gave him my word that we would be in church on Sunday morning. I could see in his face that he didn’t believe me. I went into the house and told my wife were going to Steve’s church on Sunday so Steve would stop bugging us. What could it hurt—we both loved God.
That next Sunday we went to church and it was nothing like I had expected. We opened up by singing hymns I didn’t know. I was feeling something going on inside of me. I kept looking at my wife wondering if she was feeling the same way. The kids were even smiling.
The pastor had everyone open their Bibles to the New Testament, read a couple verses and prayed and the preaching began. I had never heard preaching like that before. On the way home I looked over at my wife and we were both smiling from ear to ear. The kids loved it too. We went back that night, even though we didn’t plan on it. We liked the way we felt at church. Again we heard things we had never heard before and I started to realize that I was a sinner. My confidence of going to heaven was starting to go down the tubes.
We decide to go back on Wednesday night. The kids wanted to go and to be honest, so did I. It was a good Wednesday night, not much preaching, but teaching on God’s Word, which I needed. At the end of the service Steve asked me if we were coming again on Sunday. I told him, “No, I will be riding my four-wheeler upstate on Sunday as I always do.” You see, my Sundays were all about waking up at 6:30 AM, loading up my four-wheeler on the trailer and heading off. My friends and I would ride a couple hours, then load up the quads, hit the bar, and then head back to my house for the football games. This was an every Sunday ritual. I didn’t see anything wrong with it—it was my stress reliever. I worked six days a week and this was my day to forget reality. Nothing wrong with that. I thought I deserved it.
That Sunday came along and not thinking about my wife or the smiles on my kid’s faces or how much they enjoyed church, I loaded up my quad and hugged my wife good-bye only thinking about me. When we got to our riding spot and unloaded the quads, we started riding. But something happened to me that never happened before. I wasn’t enjoying myself at all. All I could think about was my wife and children at home. Trust me—this had never happened to me before. All the while I was riding, I felt so guilty. For the first time, I wanted to be with my family.
That was the worst riding day I ever had. I couldn’t wait to get home and tell my family, “I’m not riding anymore. We’re going to church as a family.” My kids were so happy when they heard that and my wife looked like she was going to faint. She knew that my Sundays were very important to me.
As weeks went by, we were in church every service. Every time there was an invitation to be saved, I wanted to go up. But I thought I couldn’t get saved until I quit my wicked sins. I didn’t want to come to Jesus Christ and ask Him to save me while I was still in all that sin. I thought I would be a hypocrite. I tried everyday as hard as I could to quit everything I was into, but nothing changed. I loved church and God, read my Bible everyday. I knew I needed to be born again. I knew I was a sinner. I knew I couldn’t save myself by my works. I knew there was a price or payment for sin, and I knew that Jesus had paid it all—the price, the penalty, the payment for my sins. I wanted to be saved, but I couldn’t quit my sin.
One morning after the service, I was talking to a few of the men and they asked me if I wanted to be saved. I told them I needed to quit my sin first because I didn’t want to be a hypocrite. But they explained to me that I couldn’t quit anything without first accepting Jesus Christ to be my personal savior and repenting of my sins. I said, “You mean Jesus will help me quit the things I can’t do myself?” They told I was not going to quit anything without the Holy Spirit’s help. I said, “I’m ready to get saved!”
As I was heading back to the pastor’s study, my wife asked where I was going. I told her, “I’m getting saved.” She said, “Not without me!” So together we walked back to the study. We got down on our hands and knees and I asked the Lord to please save me. I told Him, “I know that I am a lost sinner and I understand fully why you came and died on the cross.” I asked Him to take control of the rest of my life here on earth and told Him that I know longer wanted to be in control. My wife prayed also and asked the Lord to save her.
When my wife and I went home all of my friends were there partying and watching football. I remember walking down the stairs into the basement and looking around seeing everyone drinking. I was so excited, and not caring about what anyone said, I just yelled out, “Guess what? I got saved!” Of course they were drunk and not understanding, they started cheering.
That night after everyone was gone I went downstairs, rolled one up, poured myself a cold beer, grabbed my smokes and turned on the TV. This was my normal every night ritual. As I went to light up, it was almost like a knife going into my stomach. I literally stopped what I was doing. It was like the Lord saying, “No more—you are mine.” I realized right then and there, that the Lord had changed my life. I threw out my weed and everything that went with it, poured out my beer and turned off the TV and went upstairs and told my wife what happened. Ever since that day I’ve been clean without any withdrawals. I never read a book from cover to cover before I was saved. I’m happy to say I read my Bible from cover to cover before the end of that year.
I am thankful there was a Christian brother who kept coming back to my home. Now I look back to the time when I thought I was a great husband, dad, provider and on my way to heaven. Wow—how wicked I was as a husband, dad and provider for my family. I found one thing out through my salvation with Jesus Christ and that is this—once I was blind and now I see. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for saving me!