Paul Daugherty pastors Victory, a megachurch based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He recently shared a story on Facebook of how a Bible he lost 15 years earlier played a role in leading a man to Christ.

Christian Headlines writes that according to his post, Daugherty lost the Bible, filled with his notes and comments on verses scrawled in the margins, while in high school.

Ten years ago, the lost Bible somehow ended up at a shelter, where a man named Clayton found it. He kept the Bible and over the years he would regularly pick it up, intrigued by the notes written on its pages

Daugherty noted that Clayton “treasured those little scribbled thoughts and notes as much as the Bible verses” and this eventually led to Clayton choosing to believe in Christ and resulted in him breaking free from several addictions.

But on the front of the Bible, the pastor had written his name, P. Daugherty, and earlier this year, Clayton ended up at Victory and showed him the worn Bible.

Daugherty wrote:

“He came to church tonight and showed me the Bible and asked if I knew who’s it was!!? It was my old Bible from middle & high school that I lost and hadn’t seen in 15 years!!!”

“God used my old messy scribbled in Bible to save this guy’s life who now is saved, set free, and brought his whole family with kids to church tonight!!!! The WORD IS ALIVE AND POWERFUL!!!”

I remember how an old beat-up Bible played a role in my conversion to Christ. I was working for the maintenance department of a small town during my last year of high school.

Part of our job involved hauling junk to the garbage dump. On one trip, I noticed an old beat-up, black leather Bible lying on the ground at the dump.

I remember thinking that a Bible didn’t belong there, so I picked it up and threw it into the glove compartment of our gravel truck, along with our girly magazines.

A few weeks later, I was heading to university, and as I gathered my stuff at work, I noticed the old Bible in the glove compartment and took it with me.

No, I didn’t take the girly magazines.

And like Clayton, as I attended university over the next four years, I would occasionally open the Bible and read it.

Unfortunately, it had no notes. But I became a believer in my last year of university.

The Bible tells us that no one comes to Christ unless God first draws them. This includes depositing an interest in spiritual things in our heart:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44 ESV)

And I suspect, like Clayton, my interest in the Bible was because the Holy Spirit was starting to call me.

READ: Man Comes to Christ after Finding Bible Lost by Pastor Nearly 15 Years Ago AND Crazy Story: Pastor Daugherty’s Facebook post