My Salvation Testimony

A few months ago, I was given the opportunity to share my salvation testimony with my Sunday morning Bible class.  It was a wonderful exercise to revisit how I became a Christian and reflect upon how powerful and life changing an experience it truly was!  Since I have started this blog, I realized that you too, my dear reader, might want to know more about me and how I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ in a personal way.  So I hope you will be encouraged by my salvation testimony and if you are a believer, will be encouraged to reflect upon your own testimony and perhaps be led to share it with someone else this week!

I've heard it said that salvation takes but a moment...but you spend the rest of your life trying to figure out what exactly happened in that moment.  And it's true--I have come to understand my salvation experience very differently as I've grown as a Christian.  I was born and raised in a "Christian" home, but not what I would now describe as a "Spirit-filled" or a "Spirit led" home.  What I mean is that I was raised by Christian parents and went to church, prayed at meals and at bedtime, and I even recall talking about theological concepts like the Trinity with my Dad (...something about liquid, solid, and gas...) but I never really saw the connection of God and the Bible to the nitty-gritty areas of real life.   Now we moved quite a bit growing up and we went to many different churches--Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran.  And I even went to a Christian school for many of my elementary years...and yet, I was still lost in my sin. 

In Christian school, we had chapel that was taught by this little old lady with her pretty flannel graph pictures.  And my sister, who is four years older than me, was saved through the witness of this little old lady (I honestly do not remember her name...but I can assure you God does!).  Well, I can recall growing up--I think I was in 4th or 5th grade--and my sister asking me, "Risa, are you a Christian?"  And I thought that was the STRANGEST question I had ever heard--I didn't tell her that at the time, but I mean, what did she think I was?  We had grown up in the same household!  Did she think I was Buddist or Jewish...or what? 

Well, a bit of time passed and my family relocated to North Carolina, and we joined a church and I became involved in the Jr. High youth group, and soon became best friends with the pastor's daughter--her name was Jenny.   I saw Jenny's quiet example in her daily life and I began to stand up and take notice--there was something different about this girl....how she treated her younger and oftentimes annoying brother (I can say that as I was the younger and often annoying sister), how she was friendly to everyone...I don't really remember all the specifics, but I could see that her life was different and I wanted what she had. 

Well, the summer after we had moved to NC, I attended my first church youth camp at Bonclarken and heard, for the very first time, the story of Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego, and the fiery furnace in the book of Daniel.  Now here's a story that speaks directly to what most young people face--peer pressure--and I was so impressed by these three young men who KNEW what they believed and had the STRENGTH and SECURITY to stand up for the truth, even in the face of death.  Wow.  Again, I wanted what they had.  And I recall coming back from that church camp and at some point in the weeks that followed, praying a prayer when I was in bed one night and asking Jesus to come into my life.  And I did it several nights in a row, just to make sure I had "done it right" and "it had worked"--it was sort of like that '60s sitcom "I Dream of Jeanie"--I expected to close my eyes and pray and then open them to a completely changed world.  But it wasn't like that--my room was the same, my school was the same...but then as I began to live out the following weeks and months, I soon realized that I was a completely changed person.  Now granted I was 11 years old, so it is not like I was dealing drugs and walked away from a life of carousing and partying.  But I became secure in who I was, I had a peace, a contentment, a security that I had never known.  I suddenly didn't need to hang out in the back of the school bus and try to "be cool" and yearn to be accepted by the "in crowd"--I could be my own person and be true to my faith and grow in the Lord.  And God was so faithful to provide me church friends, a few Christian friends at school, youth leaders, and mentors, to speak truth into my life and encourage me in the faith.  

Now, let me return to my first point and then I will close.  Throughout my Christian life as a teenager and college student, I would have described my salvation testimony using the following terms "I accepted Christ" or "I made a decision for the Lord"...terms like that.  But now, after the perspective of many years, I have come to understand that as a unsaved sinner, I was dead in my sins (Eph 2:1).  And what can a dead person do?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  A dead person can't choose, or accept, or make a decision.  I have come to understand that my salvation is a product of God alone--His sovereign choice made before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4)--and He relentlessly pursued me and chose to call me and save me.  Why me?  I don't know why--I probably never will this side of Heaven, but all I know is it was for HIS glory. 

This became crystal clear to me when I saw years later, on an old VHS tape, a Christmas program from my church from when I was in 4th grade.  You see, during this Christmas program, there was a CLEAR presentation of the gospel.  And I was astounded to learn that I was there, in this crowd somewhere, and yet I hadn't truly HEARD the gospel--I had left as lost as I had come.  And it became clear to me at that moment, and more so in the ensuing years as I have studied and better understood the Scriptures, that God is truly the author and perfecter of my faith (Hebrews 12:2), and HE called me to Himself in HIS timing to do HIS service for HIS glory.  And while I will never truly understand this mystery of the gospel and how it intersects our lives, I am just so grateful and amazed that He would call and save a sinner like me and use me to further His kingdom. 

So maybe, in a few more decades, I will come to understand my salvation experience in an even more profound way.  I think we never truly get "beyond" our salvation experience and all that it encompasses.  I think I will forever be coming to understand what TRULY happens in that moment when you are carried from darkness to light, from being considered a slave to sin to becoming a slave to righteousness.  It is a profound reality for all of us as believers.  And I would encourage each of us see it for what it is--an amazing, mysterious, awe-inspiring interaction with the God of the Universe that will forever change our lives and our eternal destinies.