My Salvation Testimony

The day I got saved was the most important day of my life: it was the day I was reborn, changed into a new creature; I started a personal relationship with Jesus and received an eternal home in heaven. This is why he died on the cross. If you do not know for sure that you're going to heaven, please reach out to me and I would love to show you how you can be saved:)

I wrote the following towards the end of high school...

-> My Personal Salvation Testimony <-

--   12^th grade English IV    --    Thursday, 16 February, 2017   --

     Over the years I have written my personal salvation testimony many times as part of my homework. That’s not a bad thing but as with any school, a lot of it can cause you to be, not really blasé, but sort of indifferent, like it maybe doesn’t mean as much to you anymore, as it should. So when I was given the assignment to write a composition on my testimony, I thought, “Again?” and I dragged my feet about getting it done. Then I realized - my testimony is MY story of how I came to ask MY Jesus into MY heart as MY personal LORD and Saviour. Why was it boring me? Did I think that little of what God did for me? He sent His Son to die on the cross as a free gift of salvation to all who will accept it, and I was tired of telling my own experience of redemption. The Bible says in Psalm 107:2, “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so.”

     I AM REDEEMED!

     What a special thing it is to be able to say that! It’s something to get excited about! As the hymn goes, “I love to tell the story… of Jesus and His love.” Yeah, I was convicted of my apathetic attitude toward my story of God’s love and mercy. I fixed it (or rather, He fixed it as I was willing for Him to) and here I am, writing the old story, not “ugh -again?” but “yay! again!”

     My father took the pastorate of an Independent Fundamental Baptist church four years before I was born and I grew up in the church - attending three services every Sunday and an evening service every Wednesday plus any special meetings our church and others in the area had (revivals, missions conferences, etc.). Some would say I grew up being indoctrinated and brain-washed. And yes, I was taught Bible doctrine (the Ten Commandments, standards of Christian living, Jesus’ life from birth to death and resurrection, and so on), and I was immersed in the Godly lifestyle my parents led.

     It took eight years for the truth of the Gospel to sink in for me. A prison evangelist came through to hold services at the jails in our area and my dad asked him to preach for us that Sunday night. He preached on prayer. Why that topic made me think about my soul’s eternal state I don’t know. My conviction may not have had anything to do with the sermon itself; maybe it was only that God chose that time to begin working on my heart. I didn’t do anything during the service as I had myself convinced I was already born again. I remembered a few times me telling playmates how they could be saved; it couldn’t be possible that I was still lost after knowing the plan of salvation for so long.

     God kept knocking at the door (Revelation 3:20 - “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”), all that night and the next morning. I said to Him, “Okay, fine, maybe I’m not saved.” My siblings and I were about to start our home school for the day and I figured I could wait until after we were done. I changed my mind though and told my dad and mom I wanted to talk to them about something. They took me to their room where we sat on the bed as I admitted I didn’t think I was saved. I don’t remember what all my dad said; I’m sure it was the same things I’d heard since forever but that hadn’t hit me yet. I know he showed me the verses on salvation, how it’s a free gift (Ephesians 2:8,9 - “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.”) and how Jesus’ blood is the only way we can enter Heaven (John 14:6 - “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”) and how all I needed to do was believe in the LORD and ask Him to forgive my sins (Romans 10:9,10,13 - “ That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”). My mom didn’t say much; I know now that she was praying.

     My parents left me to talk to God alone. I stayed only a few minutes before going to find my mom sitting at the dining room table grading school and telling her that I knew I wasn’t saved. She smiled and said, “Go find your Daddy.” My dad was out in our driveway doing some maintenance on the white fifteen-passenger van we had at the time. He stopped what he was doing and looked at me. I said the same thing I’d said to my mom and his response was, “And?” The ‘and’ was I climbed up into the back hatch of the van where my dad was sitting and with my legs dangling over the side, I asked Jesus to save me, and this time I meant it.

     I've heard of people getting saved and immediately afterward feeling really clean… I did know I was completely clean right then, but I was a little kid and I didn’t know to cherish the moment. It wasn’t like an epiphany-type event; the story of Christ’s sacrifice was nothing new to me. But in that minute of time the story became mine. Mine to tell, mine to be an assurance of the grace that changed my life.

     That was how, on Monday, the twelfth of February in the year two thousand and seven, I was born into the family of God. No, I wasn’t brain-washed. I was heart-washed, by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

     So that’s my story. What’s yours?

 

Romans 10:13, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Psalm 100:5, “For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”