Key Bible Verses: "When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself … 'I will go home to my father'" (Luke 15:17–18). Bonus Reading: Romans 5:6–11

Bud Paxson, founder of TV's Pax Network, broke his 260-days-a-year travel schedule for the holiday. The plan: Christmas with the wider family at home in Florida, then on to Las Vegas with his immediate family. "When we'd finished opening presents," he remembers, "my wife said, 'Bud, let's have coffee on the patio. I need to talk with you.' Her words there were a bolt of lightning: 'I'm leaving you.' After the older children returned to their own homes, I placed my face in my hands and cried for hours. I was a millionaire, yet I'd lost my wife and wasn't close to my kids."

Coaxed by his younger children, Paxson still flew to Vegas and tried to enjoy New Year's Eve with them. But he returned to his suite sad and lonely. At 4 A.M. he searched for a Gideon Bible and read Romans 5:8. "As a businessman," Paxson recalls, "I understood the concept of debt. I realized Jesus had paid with His life the biggest debt of my life so I could go free."

Then he turned to another verse: "[It] said all God wanted from me was faith. Part of my spiritual confusion had centered on the belief that I had to do something to win God's acceptance. In Vegas I learned that all God wanted me to do was trust Jesus."

My Response: The reason I know I'm accepted by God is …

Thought to Apply: Every story of conversion is a story of blessed defeat.
—C. S. Lewis (British scholar, writer, 20th century)