My Dear Siestas,
There is simply no time on the annual calendar more precious and profound to us in Christendom than this. I was reflecting a moment ago how rarely we could land on a day or a weekend that most of us were having the same kinds of thoughts. Even Christmas has our attentions strewn among many things but Good Friday, for all of us who follow hard after Jesus Christ, only one.
I told the Lord a little while ago that I supposed, if we really fathomed the depth of Christ’s sufferings and the heights of our redemption because of it, we surely would not be able to lift our faces from the floor. The reality is, we can’t comprehend it. But we can well sit and reflect. We can well glance back over our pasts just long enough to realize afresh what God did for us on Good Friday so many years ago. We can well plead for Him to break through all of our distractions and self absorptions and make Jesus the dearer to us. We can well ask that we would allow our circumstances to make us the nearer to Him. We can well picture every challenge in our lives, every difficulty, every loss, every sickness, every sin, every defeat, and every heartbreak as the soil beneath Christ’s Cross, left beyond choice but to move that it might be planted in the depths with a victorious thud.
“And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He nevertheless made you alive with Him, having forgiven ALL your transgressions. He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. Disarming the rulers and authorities, He has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Colossians 2:13-15 NET
The power of the Cross has taken our disgrace and publically heaped it on our enemy.
I told Amanda yesterday that I could not think of a sweeter and more powerful way for us to observe Good Friday on this blog than to invite you to share your own story (in short form please) of your salvation. We have learned so much about one another through various journeys here but this will be the first time we’ve actually given our testimonies of salvation. When did you receive Christ as your personal Savior? How old were you and what were the circumstances leading up to your decision?
I cannot convey how much these testimonies will increase my appreciation of the power of the Cross this day. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
Blessed Good Friday, my dear sisters.
Tags: Easter
Jesus has always been “in” my life as my paternal grandmother had a love for God that was simply amazing and she was the first one where I remember saying, “I want what she’s got!!!” But truly “into” my heart He came during a revival I went to “just for fun” when I was in my early twenties. I don’t think I ever cried harder, prayed harder nor on my knees longer than I was that precious night. Ever since then He has been with me,very actively, on this earthly journey of mine and I hope He stays that way because all in all, it’s been a pretty wonderful journey. The Glory goes all to Him.
Oh,by the way Beth, you’re the second person in my life where I have said, “I want what she’s got !!”
Love you, your beautiful family and all of your support team and hope you have a most Blessed Easter.
I’m never sure how to answer this. I first prayed for God to come into my heart when I was 9. Even then I recognized how broken my childhood had already left me and I wanted desperately for Him to fix me. Many would site that as the moment I received salvation. However, my family quit going to church and I didn’t really follow Him until 2 1/2 years ago. My son, 7 at the time, came to me and said “mom, I’ve got something we can do in the mornings.” Like many of you, the last thing we needed was to add another activity to our morning routine. I bit anyway and asked what. “Pray to God.” He explained his teacher had shared she did this every morning. I kind laughed it off. Then it hit me. “Alden, what would it look like if we prayed to God every morning?” He folded his hands and in his best ‘duh, mom’ voice he replied “you know, I pray to God amen.” The conviction of my child not even knowing how to pray was overwhelming. Not long after, and still incredibly broken and desperate for Him to fix me, I prayed for God to come into my heart. Some would site this as the moment I recieved the gift of salvation. It’s funny though, everytime I ponder the question I suddenly, and vividly, remember the time I was five and stopped swinging to gaze up into a clear blue sky with lots of white fluffy clouds. I had just come from church for the first time. “God, if you’re really there please say something.” Silence. My friend explained He doesn’t talk to people outloud so I tried again. “God, if you’re really there please help me please make things better.” I can’t help but wonder if this is the moment God would site.
I was not brought up in a Christian home. At the age of 23 my circumstances were so overwhelming that I crawled up to my bed on my hands and knees and cried out, “If you are real and are out there, I need you! Help me!” At that moment He became my Savior. There were no fireworks or any overnight changes that you could see, or for that matter that I could even feel. I will quote Beth at this point by saying from this point on in my journey it was…”salvation, confusion, misery, defeat, success, more defeat, unmitigated failure, then victory.” And at some point in all that I pulled away and let go of His hand for at least a decade. The Lord had every reason to turn me over so to speak. (1Corinthians 5:5 comes to mind here.) Again my circumstances lead me to Him. Five years ago He became my LORD! There is a difference! I had tried to live a Godly life in the power of the flesh for years and ended up in pit after pit and many “Mary messes”. I learned A LOT but it never dropped down into my heart. Now I am a MIRACLE of God’s. He loved me back into the fold and forgave and loved me and healed me and is using me for His honor and glory. I now fight the fight daily to walk in the spirit of God. I am running the race and I have no intention of giving up 30 minutes before the end, or before the reward comes. ☺
Mary
Illinois
50’s
Married
I was 9 years old when I asked Jesus to come into my heart and was baptized. However, I’m not sure how much I really understood. I think I understood enough to confess my sins and believe that He died for me and rose again on the third day. But.. I truly did not understand what it really meant to have a relationship with God until I was 21. During a time when my life was in the pit, I whispered one Sat. morning standing in my parents’ kitchen, “help me Lord.” A week later He sent to me in the mail a book by this pastor that I had never heard of and had certainly not requested or paid for. God knew it was just the right moment to send me that book. I was soooo ready for change! God used that book and several other books/reading material and people to speak to me, change me, and mold me. Praise God!! 🙂
Happy Easter to the Moores, Joneses, and Fitzpatricks!
Love and blessings,
Missy
Dear Beth and friends,
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share our testimonies! You can never share too often can you the goodness of God’s Grace and mercy! I was baptized as a child of 7 years old. I lived the Christian life for a good while, until I hit my highschool years. As alot of teens do, I picked up some horrible worldly habits, lived a life of sin that chained me down! I was the master of my world. (Mind you I am a pastor’s daughter) Everything “LOOKED” good on the outside but on the inside I was dying. I survived a semester at a Bible College and came back home to further my MRS. degree. I worked as a manager of a local fast food restaurant, met and married my husband, and that is when my true journey started. In April of 1999 after several months of trying to conceive a child, we finally did only to lose that baby at 17 weeks into the pregnancy. I wasn’t really too serious about my walk with God. But I knew there was more to my life then what was present. In august 4 months after my first miscarriage I miscarried again at 7 weeks. I was ready to throw in the towel. I was as far from God as I could have been and I really felt like there was no hope! I felt worthless as a woman, helpless as a human, and I was desperate for something to fill the longing and the void in my life! I ended up leaving my husband for about 6 weeks and during these six weeks is when God began to change my life! I found out at the end of that 6 weeks that I was 8 weeks pregnant and that pregnancy changed my life! The Lord spoke to me through those days. He told me there was a hope and there was something to live for. My little boy needed me to go on and my job wasn’t over. God blessed me throughout my pregnancy. He began to show me a bit of himself throughout the entire pregnancy. My baby was blessed not once but twice in my womb. Throughout the whole United States and parts of Canada, people were praying for this baby! He was my miracle baby! God has just continued to work on me from there. When he was about 9 months old, a friend came and asked if I would be interested in doing a Beth Moore Bible Study. I really didn’t know what I was in for! But it was the most amazing thing I had ever encountered. God’s word became alive! My life changed b/c I had a new way of looking and studying things. Finally my longing became a reality! God manifested himself in my life! He turned me from a helpless, hopeless, pile of mud in a pit into a woman who knew she had power! God’s power! Throughout these last 9 years, my life has been a complete and total ride! God has blessed me with a daughter after my son. Then I experienced a miscarriage that threw me for a HUGE loop! It was another devastating time! But God is faithful and he says he will never leave nor forsake us and he didn’t! He helped me pick up the pieces in time to help a friend who unfortunately went through the same ordeal! A year later, I found out I was having another little girl and 18 months later another little boy! I’ve found that having children will DRIVE you to your knees! But the Lord has just impressed upon me that if I want them to know the love of Christ, I must show them the Love of Christ! The same Grace and Mercy God has extended to me, I must show them so they can understand it! I want them to see the real Christ, and I’m praying that it will be through me! As I have now just completed my 7th Bible Study by Beth Moore, I am working on fulfilling a ministry God has placed upon my heart for other women. I have no idea how it will work out, or where it will go, but it’s going to begin in about 3 weeks in Sao Luis Brazil. God called me one night during a church service as two women gave their testimony about going to Brazil, and he called on my heart to go with them! 12 Days Post-Calling, God has provided my finances to go, my passport back in enough time to apply to get my visa, and Lord willing the day after Easter I’ll be sending off my visa to get my stamp and complete my plans by getting my airline tickets. I guess I say all this to really say that the testimony isn’t just a one time thing. It’s a continual walk with God. Whether we are on the mountain, or in the valley, we can still praise God. His beauty and wonder is written everywhere we turn. Our testimony never stops until we are made complete. As a wonderful precious woman told me the other night at a local McDonald’s “A testimony isn’t a testimony without the test!” I want to add to that, “Did I pass?” Lord I hope I pass, because in the end, I want to hear “Well done good and faithful servant!”
Oh goodness, I may have taken up way too much room! I’m sorry to be such a testimony hog! Love the testimonies everyone!
Sometimes I wish I had a “boring” story to tell! It was twelve years ago…I was 16 and in the middle of a chaotic year of high school when I realized how much the Lord loved me. Up until then I had truly believed I hated the Lord. I felt he had done nothing but punish me my whole life, and I had the scars to prove it. I was at the end of my rope and knew something had to change, or I was going to end the pain myself. Long, long story short…He knew how to reach me in the middle of my desperation, He knew the right people to love me where I was, He knew just what I needed, and my life has never been same. I am thankful that He cares for even the smallest seemingly insignificant lost little sheep!
~NaTosha
I grew up in church my whole life, and eagerly accepted Christ at a young tender age. But it was not until I was 19 that a friend introduced me to a sanctified christian life, and I have never been the same after that trip to the alter – Praise His Holy Name! As a child, I had no idea there was more to christianity than “going through the motions” even tho I truly believed He lived and died for my sins! But when the Holy Spirit comes to live inside — it changes everything. E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g!
I was nine yrs old – at vacation bible school. I remember everything about that day
the color of the walls, what pew I was on, where the pastor was standing even his name
my Mom was there. I remember the feeling I got – it started at the top of my head
down to my feet. I felt like I was flowing down to the front of the church. The
pastor told me I didn’t know what I was doing – I said yes I do – he had my mom
and another lady talk to me. They told him yes she knows. I had to beg him to
baptize me – he finally did in november.
I went forward in Sunday School at the age of six.
Thank you, God, for the wonderful people who teach children’s Sunday School.
Oh the lives they touch!
I was 15 when the Lord saved me. He used the high school ministry of Young Life to reach me and I bowed my knee at Malibu Club during summer camp in August of 1971. How patient he has been with me as I have slowly comprehended more of Him as He has blown apart the box I thought He lived in. Thank you, Jesus.
I also went Malibu with young life…up in Canada right?….beautiful place for God to meet you!
When I was in college I accepted Christ after many years of going through the motions. I was in my apartment watching a movie and felt the Lord getting my attention. I immediately turned off the movie, prayed and asked Jesus into my heart. For once accepted His free gift of love and forgiveness without trying to do it on my own. For years I had tried to be the best I could be and be good enough. I was even about to marry a minister…thinking this would definitely make me good enough. Luckily I accepted Christ and married that man and now we serve an amazingly loving God and are watching Him do some extraordinary things. Praise the Lord!
I was raised in a Christian home and have had a relationship with Christ fr as long as I can remember. I don’t even remember saying a prayer to invite Him into my heart, just having a relationship with Him. My faith really began to change my freshman year in college, though. It was then that I really started getting tired if the church game and wanted to do what God asked of me. It was on my first mission trip to Taiwan that summer that I realized how I needed to be living everyday for Him. It wasn’t until a few years ago, that I really began truly seeing His heart for me and letting Him heal me. Before, it was mainly about following commands.
God bless,
Elizabeth
I was thirteen years old when I accepted Jesus into my heart to be my Lord and Saviour. I lived in a little town with a population of 411. But one of the 411 invited me to summer church camp and it was there on the last night of praise and worship that I surrendered to Him. Today, I understand how important “one person” can be. One, single person can point you in a direction, plant the seed and then let God do the rest. God Bless those who believe that ONE can truly make a difference.
It was on a Good Friday when I was 15 (20 years ago). I was in a video shop looking for a movie. All of a sudden, I stopped and realised that it was Good Friday and that I should be in church, not looking for a movie. That was when I started to really yearn for a relationship with God.
As a Catholic, I was baptized in infancy and confirmed during my early teen years. But I think it wasn’t until college that I really came to have a personal relationship with Jesus. I had grown up going to Church with my family and it wasn’t until I was away from them and had to choose it myself that I really understood how much it meant to me. It was in college that I really decided to give my life to Him. And I am so glad I did.
Now that I am older and have healed from the pain, I tell people that dirty laundry led me to Christ. I was abused in many ways as a very young child and I would go hide in the dirty laundry to get away. When I was 7 I went to revival services with my grandparents. The preacher spoke about how we are like dirtly rags to God, but the blood of Christ could make us like fresh, clean linen. I knew how dirty laundry smelled and how it made me feel. Deep in my heart I knew God was good and I didn’t want to be like dirty laundry to Him. So the next night I went to the altar and accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. Praise His Precious Name!!!
I was 46 years old … I was on again/off again searching for “it” but was sure that “God” was NOT IT! Then, one day in a Church for one of my goddaughter’s functions God touched my heart…..
Beth,
Just had to let you know that I dreamed about you last night. In my dream I actually met you in person at your office. I had my mom and my youngest daughter with me and you did not disappoint. I’ve been to two or three Living Proof events but have never actually met you. In my dream, as I truly believe you are in person, you are the real deal! Thank you for loving women the way that you do and for investing your life in us! The first study of yours that I did (many years ago) was A Woman’s Heart, God’s Dwelling Place (the ladies and I all called it “The Tabernacle” study). It wet my appetite for God’s word and studying it. I have since done all of your studies and they were all wonderful and caused me to grow. A Woman’s Heart, God’s Dwelling Place & Believing God were my very favorites.
I read your blog every day! Amanda sounds a lot like you, but so does Melissa in a different way. Thank you for being real to us!
Oh, and So Long Insecurity is making a difference in my life. I’m on Chapter 16 and learning SO much! I am now recognizing insecurities and dealing with them as they come up.
I love you Moore girls (and families)!
Angie – I had a dream about her last night too! In my dream, my friend (whom I haven’t seen in several years) & I were in a waiting room of a hospital/MD office when in walked Beth Moore! I couldn’t quit staring at her! We got to talking & she started teaching a Bible study right there & then. Don’t remember much after that but I woke up this am thinking “How odd *but in a totally cool way*!”
I was at the young age of eight i knew that I was not going to live the life of a sinner at that age I had a lot going on around me
but I had a old lady that lived down the road that would take at least six children to church
with with her . I’m so thankful see did that or I wouldn’t be here today walking with god
Beth, Amanda and Melissa – will you tell us yours?
1996 I lost a dear friend to a murder, suicide. Her ex-husband shot and killed her then turned the gun on himself. (He had left employment from our business about 2 months prior to this!) It hit me hard, and I immediately asked the Lord where would I go if I died THIS day. But in 1999, I was at my lowest possible spot and that is when I truly surrendered and have been ON FIRE for my Lord and Savior ever since. ’96 He woo’d me, 99, I fell deeply in love with Him. I had just turned 34 in ’99.
Living for Jesus with much love and admiration,
Yolanda
I was six years old and it was at a children’s revival. All our little local churches hauled us all up to the Nazarene church for a children’s revival and lo and behold Jesus showed up. I don’t remember the speaker or the music. I just remember the night and standing in a line to go down front and pray. I’ve come back to raise my babies in the same little county and fellowship at the same little SB church but I praise God for the Nazarene’s every time I drive past their door!
I grew up in a Methodist church, and was saved at 12 years old during the Confirmation Class. Its not a dramatic story, but a real one 🙂 I have never been the same! Thank You Jesus! I now attend a Baptist church and have the joy of seeing both of my daughters saved and baptised. He Is RISEN!
Thank you, Beth, this is a great post!!
I was given a small Bible when I was about 10. My parents had my name put on it in gold. I would set and read the scriptures not really comperhening what was being told to me. But I felt so over come with love and remembering crying over the dealth of Jesus. Then to read of Him rising from the grave. I was so in love with Jesus. But I did not give my self, my life to Him till I was about 20. Why did it take so long I don’t know. I just know He had the patiences to wait for me. I am so grateful for His Love To Me.
I met Jesus when I was 23 years old. I was out to prove my husband (who’d been raised on Church, but lacked a relationship with Jesus) wrong; I was NOT raised in church of any kind!
I was going to read through the Bible and tell him why it was wrong. Instead, I read as far as through Genesis and came to as believing knowledge of Jesus! That was 11 years ago and now I have surrendered fully to a passion for His Word and now I write and teach Bible studies to an incredible group of women. His word will NEVER return void!!!
Happy Resurrection Day!!
When I was 4, my brother (who was 6) came home from Sunday School and said, “Al, I want you to pray this prayer because I don’t want you to go to hell!” I didn’t know what hell was, but if my big brother didn’t want me to go there I knew I didn’t either. I prayed after him. I grew up in a wonderful Christian home, and I loved Jesus, though my heart did stray in my high school years. I came back to Him at age 17 through a godly Bible study leader in a home Bible study. I also feel like the author of Stepping Heavenward, who said, “To my dear mother I owe much of my deep love of the Lord Jesus, which seems to have no beginning or end, though it has had its fluctuations.”
He is risen!
I accepted Christ my senior year in undergrad after going from one organization and activity to another in order to find a place where I felt ‘at home’. The moment after I turned my life over to Christ it felt like I had taken off my rose-colored glasses and could see the world anew from His perspective. My entire corridor of girls had been praying for me since the beginning of the semester…and I became involved with Campus Crusade for Christ.
My family never attended church. I like you Beth always had a heart for the Lord even from an early age. I remember being in 3rd grade being in a read-a-thon to earn a book of bible stories. I loved that book. I memorized Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer all by myself. My granny lived across the road from us. She had a portrait of Jesus on her living room wall. I admired is so and wanted to know who he was.
Well, when I was 15 I had no real best friends in school. Me and my meloncoly personality only wanted to have one bestess buddy. A new family moved into town. A preacher with 5 kids. His oldest daughter became my best friend. We did everything together. I stayed with them every weekend. We had so much fun. Even now most of my fondest memories are those weekends. So of course I went to church with them on Sundays. I had been going about a month. Then one Sunday the Holy Spirit got ahold of me. I was white knuckling that pew. I did not want to go forward but I felt that I was going to explode into a million pieces if I didn’t. I always tell people that the devil fought me every step of the way. The shoes that I had on had a nail head sticking out of the bottom. Every step that I made that nail head got stuck in the carpet!!
My older sister also went to church there and was saved. We both got baptized in the river that summer. It was soooo cold you sure did come out with a shout!!
I accepted Christ when I was 16 after watching my boyfriend live out his faith. I wanted what he had…he introduced me to Jesus and I’m forever thankful God used him in my life at that time and now, as my husband of 20 years!
Beth, I was rushing through the day yesterday until I read your post. Thank you so much for bringing my thoughts to the most important. I do so love you!! Traci
I had been brought up in church, but found out I had never been baptized. There was a confirmation class being offered in my church, and I just knew it was something I wanted to do. Although as a child, I didn’t fully understand “everything”, I knew I wanted to live for Jesus and I told Him so during the confirmation/baptism at my church. I rededicated my life to Him as a young adult (after teenage years) because I knew I had gotten “off track”. Through the years, the victories, the hardships, etc., I just knew He was always with me and that realization has gotten me through so much!!
Where would I be without Him?!
Patti, Kissimmee, FL
I was 6 years old, but then again as a teenager. I have since rediscovered my need for a savior and redemption again as an adult which has led me to turn my life over to Him again. Not that I ever really strayed that far but, having children of my own has just been such a eye and heart opener for me. He loves me even more than I can love my own precious ones – and I die for any of them in a heartbeat. I have also had the privilage of leading my oldest daughter in the sinner’s prayer at age 4 – feeling so blessed to have the godly heritage that I do as she is the 9th generation of God-fearing, bible-believing Christ-followers in my family!
My family never went to church until a little Baptist church moved into our neighborhood. My family started attending during the summer when I was 12. The pastors name was Ron Fox. I can’t believe I remember that after all these years. During that summer I felt an inexplicable pull to give my life to Him. I remember the way my body felt as I walked up the isle to pledge my faith and surrender my life. What a release and joy. I was baptized in that church by the very same pastor. My life has been through many low, very low points but I have always known since that day, that I was loved and forgiven. I have not always felt close to Him through my separation of sin, but I have always known He was there with me, trying against my resistance to guide my path.
I, too, was reflecting so much yesterday about what Jesus was experiencing during different times of the day. I pictured myself there beside His mom. Just bawling and confused. Then finally came the words “It is finished.” Wow! I was saved at 9 years old. Raised by Christian parents and knew the truth about Jesus Christ. The most powerful fact about the Cross for me is as an adult when I realized that Jesus would have hung on that cross after being beaten to a pulp with His precious beaten raw back on that wood just for me. I knew He had the whole world’s sin heaped upon Him, but when I realized He would have done that just for ol’ me, blew me away! Why on earth the incredibile Father of ours would take His one and only Son and let Him go through that for me is beyond my comprehension. How many many times I lay with my face on the floor and picture myself at the foot of that cross with Jesus’ precious blood dripping on me – I have tears rolling as I remember that again while typing this. All I can say is “Thank you, Jesus.”
I was 13 when I accepted Christ – although I made 2 public professions & baptisms before that. But, God got hold of me @ a Youth Evangelism Conference in Dallas and did not let me go. The evanglist talked of me dying or Jesus coming back – where would I go? I don’t think I’d ever heard about Jesus coming back before then b/c it scared the mess out of me. I fought Him for about 1 month – the worst month of my life – and finally gave in at my home and accepted Him into my heart after He whispered “Just go do it. What do you have to lose?”. Oh the joy & light that He brought! My burden was lifted & I was no longer scared that I wouldn’t be prepared!
I grew up with a mom that did believe in God and dad that didn’t. When I was 12 yrs old I put a glass of water on my desk and said to God if He was real to make in fall in the floor. It didn’t happen and I cried all night and decided there was no God.
When I was 17 I started dating this intelligent college boy who happened to have a personal revival in the midst of out dating. After telling him I did not believe in God he broke up with me but continued to talk and pray with me. I even went to church with him. Sept 7, 1997 I got saved. It amazes me how God woed me so specifically. I needed to be shown it’s not a crutch or for the simple minded. This is the very deep, complicated, heady truth! That young man has since fallen away, breaks my heart. But God used him in one summer to change my life and my families. My dad got saved later that year, and boy oh boy is he proof that God can change you!
Thanks for this blog. I’m in a little lonely season of life and it’s so nice to have these posts to “catch up” with.
– Tiffany
I can really never NOT believing in Jesus as my personal Savior, however, I made my public profession of faith at GA camp when I was around 12 years old. I, like many others, have been a part of church since the nursery days and attended the same church til my college days, even married in that same wonderful sanctuary by my cherished pastor. My faith grew gradually through the years in Him. However, through hard times with family relationships through my married years and raising 4 sons away from “home,” my walk with Christ has strengthened monumentally the past decade. He has revealed Himself more through my trials than ever before, largely from Beth Moore studies, boundary books, etc. I love Him like never before, still trusting Him for the desires of my heart even though my heart is longing for those desires NOW! I remind myself frequently how fortunate I am to have been raised in a Christian church and never have really gone through EVER doubting that Jesus truly is my Messiah.
I was three! 🙂 My Sunday School teacher said that we could not go to Heaven without Jesus in our hearts. I knew I wanted to go to Heaven; I wanted Jesus in my heart! I went home and asked my mom if I could has Jesus in my heart. It is a perfect memory I have – one of the few clear memories of my very early childhood – but I remember the kitchen, the light coming in the windows, and standing by my momma as she stood at the sink (her normal place), and praying for Him to come into my heart. 🙂 He has held me tightly since; walking so close to me… He has been SO faithful – drawing me MORE into Himself…. it really is He in ME and I in HIM!! He is So GLORIOUSLY Beautiful!
The short version, as if there is one. I did not grow up in a Christian home. My home was full of abuse and neglect. When I was thirteen, my mother abandoned us, though she had emotionally abandoned us long before. Through it all God was wooing me to him, holding me safe in his hands. I would sometimes read the bible that my mother had lying around. When I was fifteen one of my friends invited me to an event with her church. They presented the gospel and I went forward to accept Christ. I believed in God, prayed and even read the bible but I didn’t know that I needed to choose Christ until that moment. I didn’t really understand what I was reading until then. God chose me or I never would have survived my childhood. He loved me and took care of me, even before I could choose Him, He chose me.
Thank you Abba!
The Lord came for me, in my room, with His Word, that became so alive in me I felt like I fell in love, head over heals. His Word became my very breath. The trials came very soon after that, but He has stayed first in my life.
I was 28 (it was 1989, married, 2 toddlers). My mother-in-law brought over the book, “Evangelism Explosion” by D. James Kennedy. (We all thought I was already a Christian. After all, I believed in God and must have had all the “God talk” down pretty well.) But she brought the book to show me that her church was beginning to share the Gospel using this format and would I be interested in learning it? You bet I was! She asked me the 2 questions and I didn’t have a clue how to answer them. “It’s ok” she said. “You can answer them wrong and still be a Christian.” But the more she read to me, the more I realized I was not a Christian. Teh conviting scripture was, “You beleive there is on e God? You do well, even the demons believe and shudder.” That said to me that even the devil believes in God, but he is not going to heaven. Later, that night, I bawled like a baby on the steps in our home and gave my life to Christ. My mother in law still insists I was already a Christian, but I knew differently! Praise the Lord!
I grew up in a Baptist church. One Sunday morning sitting in church when I was 9 I remember for the first time I was a sinner & needed Jesus to save me. I prayed with the pastor a few days later in my home. I am so glad I said yes to Jesus.Isn’t that what it all about all our lives….saying yes to Jesus.
I was saved as a young child in children’s church and have loved Jesus ever since.
I received my salvation as I laid on the living room floor. I was in the midst of depression. I was struggling with the fact that I had three abortions. In my mind I never really dealt with it and in a weird way-I thought that is was a secret even from God. That day I cried out to him and told him that I couldn’t take it anymore and I wanted him to save me. Save me from myself. I wanted to die. Oh, how I cried and then I felt his presence and I know that I know I heard his voice. It was soon after that that my pastor caught me after church and wanted to know if I wanted to get baptized. That my dear is a whole another story in which God showed his presence in my life. I then, was directed truly by God to a crisis pregnancy center where I was placed by the hand of God in a post abortion bible study and got forgiven and set free. I am blessed. Your bible studies and blessed me so and keeps me reminded of how awesome God is and that he truly directs my paths and keeps his promises true. Have a Blessed Easter. He is risen and He is alive. Julie
I cannot remember a time in my life (Praise Him!) that I did not know that Jesus loved me. I was ten years old when I prayed with my parents to receive Him as my Savior. As a young single woman, I thought I knew better than Him. No, I was sure I knew best and certainly walked my own path instead of His. It took a broken engagement (to a man of MY choice for me, not His)to bring me to a place of repentance. At age 28, I started to truly follow Jesus and seek Him in a personal relationship. He met me and led me every step of the way. I praise Him today for His mercies that are new every morning! I love how He leads me through my marriage (to the man He chose for me!) and motherhood of my two miracle children to a closer knowledge of Him. The price He paid for me leaves me speechless.
I was on the floor of my car at night watching for my boyfriend, who had just dumped me. As I lay on the floor of my car in the college parking lot, crying for my loss and watching my boyfriend enter his dorm room with another girl, God called me to go to a prayer meeting that my mom invited me to. It was in the 70’s during the “Charismatic Renewal”. I left the parking lot and went to the meeting and never looked back. I accepted Christ and now its 37 years later. I will never forget how HE dragged me out of the pit!!
I was eleven, kneeling next to my trundle bed before bedtime. Grew up in a darling church where God’s Word was greatly loved and taught. Understood the plan of salvation just wasn’t sure I was saying the right words, really meant it, etc. On that particular night I decided to remember the date: Dec 2, 1975. I asked Jesus to save me, knowing only He could. Had struggled for years with assurance of salvation, but after that night, God gave peace and confidence in Jesus’ blood.
“Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God…” 1 Peter 2:10
Thank you Almighty!
I was a freshman in College at MSU. I came as a normal college student excited about everything. I spent my first few months enjoying classes meeting new people and spending all of my free time partying. But somewhere in those first few months I began feeling so empty. I had this feeling that there had to be something more. I began getting depressed and wanting to leave school. I was so tired of the partying, sex and drugs. I knew I had to get out. God knew I had to as well because he sent to girls from Campus Crusade for Christ to my dorm room door. They shared the story of Jesus one February afternoon and it was all I ever wanted. I asked Jesus into my life that very minute. It changed my life and I have never gone back. I havnt drank or smoked since. I immediately got out of the sexual relationship I was in and I ran with Jesus. He changed my everything. After the girls left that afternoon my roommate smiled and said sarcastically “are you gonna go to their bible study?” and I said with confidence “yes I am.” She stared at me in shock having no idea about the change that had happened before her eyes. THANK YOU JESUS!
I offically went down the weekend of my 10th Birthday and was baptized on Easter. I honestly don’t remember a time where I did not know my Savior and His love for me. I believe my close connection and realization happened very early in my life because I was born at 24 weeks and weighed 1 1/2 pounds. Even over the years as I have struggled sometimes not hearing Him or feeling His presence I knew He had a purpose for me and how much He loves me. Easter for me brings on those heavy issues of my sin and what it did to Jesus but also what He did for me and the freedom I have because of Him. This year a week before exactly 30 years ago I will have that security to be fully used by Him for Him, and we are starting a new chapter in our family with a new church and a desire to seek Him deeper daily. Excited for Sunday morning. . .May you all have a blessed Easter!!
I too grew up in a home where we “did” church most Sunday’s — my mom never went, my father, who coverted from Russian Orthodox to Catholicism to marry her took us every week. Went thru all of the rituals of the Sacraments and loved all of it. THEN – adolescence hit, I strayed and didn’t return until late 20’s with 2 babies. I was blessed beyond measure to work for a Christian based company (out of Dallas TX) who used Scripture in all of our newsletters and communications and it started to hit me that I knew none of it! 8 years in a Catholic school with “religion class” every day for 40 minutes and I was just now hearing Scripture??? At the age of 35 I attended a non-denominational church for the first time….I heard the plan of salvation and was immersed into Christ in August of 1995….praise Him!!! Happy Resurrection Day to all of you who read my little post 🙂 He is Risen, He is Risen, indeed!!