A Testimony of Salvation

I was in the most dangerous place I could be in – believing I was saved and wasn’t! I didn’t drink, smoke, or cuss. I went to church most Sundays and prayed every day – I never read the Bible. But surely, I’m going to Heaven, right? I was a good person, but I found out that “good” people don’t go to Heaven, “God” people do! The problem with being good is that you can’t be good enough. You’ll never get to Heaven by your “goodness.” In 1973 I took Bible classes to join the church and take my first communion. In the classes talking about Jesus, I felt the warm-fuzzies and goosebumps – but that’s not salvation. Without repentance there is no forgiveness of sin. Repent of what; remember I was a good kid? “Good”, but God’s definition for “good” is perfection – never having done any wrong. But God says, “All have sinned and come short of My righteous standard.” So, “good” never even comes into the equation for salvation! So believing I was saved, born again, and a Christian, this twelve-year-old boy began life again, or so I thought. Unfortunately it was another seventeen years before my poor deluded heart had its eyes opened! It was God’s mercy to let me live to reach the ripe old age of twenty-nine to really become born again. Had I died anywhere between the ages of 12 and 29, I’d be in Hell now! So friend, don’t think you’re good enough to get to Heaven – you’re not! In the summer of 1990 I had been out of work for about 6 months. I was tired of the “Hypocrite Christians” I had worked with for ten years, and I was sick of life! I complained about them to my brother and told him that I was going to read my Bible and become the best Christian he ever saw…poor foolish me. So, I even went into the Bible for all the wrong reasons – to prove them wrong. But God’s great love and mercy for us came to me once again, to rescue me from my bitterness, and blindness, and Hell. Somewhere in my Bible reading I realized the whole book is true! This really is the Word of God! Tossing around in my heart the things I was reading, I cried myself to sleep every night for a week. But, that first sorrowful night, I felt a huge weight lift off of me that I did not even know I was carrying! And in my Bible ignorance, even being in church for almost thirty years, I had no idea what had just happened. It couldn’t have been salvation, because I was already saved. Or was I? As I continued to read the Bible it became very clear that I had never been born-again. I had never repented of my sins. Believing in Jesus isn’t enough – believing and trusting in Jesus is enough. God says the demons believe in Jesus, and tremble! So believing is not enough. Trusting is. And the weight that I felt lift off of me that first night – 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.” The weight lifting and cleanness I felt in my heart was a “Spiritual Renewal.” I was a new creation whether I understood it all or not. You don’t have to understand everything to become a Christian. You just have to understand the main things (for now): 1) Jesus is God – the Savior of the World. 2) He came to die in our place for our sins. 3) He died and rose from the dead, and if we repent of our sins we will live for all eternity with Him in Heaven. It really is just that easy to be forgiven and become a Christian – a Christ Jesus follower. If what I have said is in anyway convicting the deepest part of your being, remember the Bible says tomorrow is not promised to anyone - today is the day of salvation.

Mark M. - VA

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6 (NIV)