grabbed by uncensored grace

“Party on, dude,” was the life mantra of Jud Wilhite as a teen growing up in Amarillo, Texas. He played in rock bands around town and lived for the moment. It was the 80’s era of big hair and heavy metal. Jud admits, “I even wore spandex! It was not a pretty picture.” He didn’t think much about God, the future, or the direction of his life. He didn’t think much about anything other than the next party.

But eventually the lights went out on the party. It simply stopped being fun. “The sense of emptiness and meaninglessness in my life was so tangible and oppressive,” recalls Jud. “On the outside I still acted like the life of the party, but inside I was dying. I was like a ghost.”

He was tired of drugs, tired of shallow relationships, and tired of feeling empty. “I felt tired of being tired,” says Jud. “So I went into my bedroom and shut the door. I fell to my knees. I was way out of my comfort zone. As I prayed to God, I half expected the walls of our house to collapse! My words were awkward and slow. I expected God to interrupt me at any moment and say, ‘Listen, Jud, you’ve done so much damage in your life. I gave you great relationships that you have harmed with your selfishness. I gave you a healthy body that you’ve damaged by partying too much.’ Yet all I can tell you,” Jud continues, “is that what I sensed from God was unexpected. I didn’t hear a voice or anything, I just sensed God impressing three simple words on my heart. Those words were filled with unimaginable grace and love. They were, ‘Welcome home, Jud.’ And they changed my life.”

The next morning Jud dug out a Bible and began reading it. He started attending church, asked lots of questions and grew in his faith. In the years leading up to his surrender to God, he likens his life to an earthquake. That night when he cried out to God, the earthquake stopped. But there was a lot of clean up in the aftermath. “I had to rebuild my life and relationships with family and friends one person at a time,” says Jud. “I had new meaning in life, a reason to live, to love and to help people. The emptiness I’d become so accustomed to was gone.”

Jud was still a new Christian when the Senior Pastor at his church stopped him in the hall and said, “I believe you have the potential to be a pastor.” I remember thinking, “Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what I have done in my life?” Jud laughed it off, but the seed was planted in his mind. “It was a powerful moment for me. He was the first person to see potential in me and believe in me as a leader.”

With that thought on hold, Jud spent the next eight months playing bass guitar for a band in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This was a time of deep spiritual growth. “In the midst of that, I began to desire to know more about God and the Bible, so I attended Dallas Christian College.” ”

Once there, Jud developed a deep longing to share Jesus’ message with people who hadn’t experienced His love and grace. “I was a broken person when I came to Christ,” he says. “I kept trying to make up for all the wrong I had done. It took me two years to fully receive God’s grace and realize I couldn’t pay Him back. He had already done that for me through Jesus. One night I asked God to help me do whatever it took to teach and reach others with that same message of grace.”

A short time after that conversation with God, Jud began to teach whenever there was an opportunity. He went on to finish college and graduate school with degrees in Biblical studies and theology and now serves Central Christian Church in Las Vegas. He “married up,” as he puts it, to Lori and has two young kids. “Sometimes I just look at my kids while they are sleeping and I stand in awe. I remember all of this stuff of life is a gift that we must handle with care. I remember that none of it would have been possible for me without God.”

Jud laughs and says he is convinced God has a huge sense of humor. “Just think of it. He takes this messed up guy who would never see himself in a million years as a pastor, and opens the doors for it to happen. Then he puts him in the Las Vegas area of all places—the party capital of the world—and allows him the privilege of sharing the message of grace and forgiveness with others. I just love it!!”

Jud now speaks and writes to thousands of people in the Las Vegas area and around the country about the grace and forgiveness of God. But he keeps it real by remembering where he came from. “I’m just a guy who came to the end of himself, looked up and found God waiting there. He is waiting for you as well, if you will simply turn to him. Becoming a Christian doesn’t solve all your problems, but it can make your life worth living. Jesus Christ offers rebirth and renewal, a new life where you’ll experience inner peace, living joy, and loving relationships as never before. It is all worth it.”