I grew up in Christian home, prayed the sinner’s prayer and was baptized at 10, but failed to actually get born of the Spirit – (John 3:3) (2 Cor. 5:17). I was a false convert and up until Jan.6, 2007, my life could be described similar to the people we see in Matthew 7.  My life was full of iniquity (lawlessness), and I was dead in my sins. I was a slave to sin. Lust, pride, anger, sloth, greed, etc…I knew there was a problem with my life and something deep within (my conscience) told me I was vile person that constantly violated God’s moral Law (10 commandments). But the harder I tried to fix myself, the more I realized how enslaved I was to my sinful desires. I was dead spiritually.

In 2006 I started pondering what it means to be a Christian. Christianity teaches I was not supposed to be a slave to sin, yet I still was. Christianity teaches I must be perfect to have eternal life, which I was not. Christianity teaches I will have a burning passion to love God above all things; again, I did not. Christianity teaches that sin is breaking God’s laws, and when you sin you create a sin debt. And the last thing I remember thinking was this is why Jesus Christ came and died 2000 years ago. It was to pay the fine or debt for the sin I could not pay. Jesus was perfect and did not sin, nor did He break God’s law. He became a sacrifice for sin so that through Him God could forgive sin and give eternal life. So around mid December 2006 I started daily calling out to God something like this: “Oh, my God, I am guilty of sinning against You. I have broken all Your laws. God I do not want to sin anymore. I want to obey You and walk in Your ways even though I don’t know how. Oh, God, I fling myself at Your feet begging for mercy. I believe Jesus Christ came and was born from a virgin by the Holy Spirit and lived a sinless life. I believe Jesus was sacrificed for sinners, died on the cross and buried 3 days, and 3 days later You raised Him from the dead and He is alive today. Please, oh God, give me eternal life and show me, a sinner, mercy.”

Well, let me say nothing happened at first.  This crying or mourning went on for about 2 full weeks.  On Jan. 6, 2007, God, out of His own good pleasure, decided to show me mercy and saved me at 4am during one of my pleadings with Him.  It was a radical experience and conversion.  No, lighting did not strike the tree outside, nor did I see a vision or hear a real voice, but let me tell you I did have an experience with the Living God of Israel. God touched my life at that very moment and impressed upon me I was forgiven. God impressed upon my heart and mind that my life was ransomed through the suffering and death of His Son Jesus Christ. From that moment I have become a follower of Christ. I am a slave to Him who has purchased me. All the guilt of my sin has been removed and I finally feel truly free and alive. I have a peace that surpasses the intellect that I will live forever. I no longer enjoy the sin I once loved, but have a passion to please God in all things I do. I believe I have found the key to eternal life, and I must share it with anyone who will listen. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story and I pray God would do mighty and great things for you. Most importantly give eternal life in and through Jesus Christ…

I grew up in a loving 2-parent home. Both parents worked so we would not go without. My father worked late & my mother worked swing shifts. We didn’t go to church, but we still thought we were Christians. I guess I believed being a Christian was an inheritance because I knew the church at which my ancestors were buried. In 2nd grade I started going to church on a church bus that came around the neighborhood. When I got saved there, my mother would not let me join or get baptized. She felt I did not understand what it meant. She told me to wait until I was older & understood it better. The people at the church started pressuring me about it joining and getting baptized, so I stopped going. I thought that you didn’t have to go to church to go to Heaven. Apparently I didn’t understand my salvation experience because at this point I also thought you just had to be good to go to Heaven. In high school, an evangelist came and made a patriotic presentation at school. He was having an event that night, & some friends & I decided to go. We were in ROTC & liked the patriotism displayed at school that day. When we got there,we discovered it was a revival. And when the invitation was given, we went forward but only because everyone else did. I took some religion classes at college, but my attitudes still did not change. At this time, I felt the Bible was just written by men to control others.

I grew up in a wealthy home and I was very materialistic. I thought the more a person had, the more important they were. I went to church, but I did not understand what it meant to truly repent. I thought I could say that I was sorry on Sunday and do the same sin over and over again. I was definitely a Sunday Christian. I had no prayer times and I never read my Bible. I knew there had to be more to life and I desired to make a difference, but I did not know what was missing.

When I was 23, I was already working as a funeral director and often thought of my own mortality. I was embarrassed that I did not know how to have true peace or eternal life. A friend of mine asked me to come to his church. After much running from God, I finally agreed. The minister asked me if I had any peace in my life and if I had ever truly asked Jesus to come into my heart. In July of 1987, I gave my life to Jesus and He changed my life for the better.

I am not perfect, but because I accepted Jesus, I know that I am going to Heaven when I die. I also know that no matter what happens to me in this life, it will work out for my good. It is very comforting to Know that I serve a God that loves me unconditionally and extends mercy and grace to me in times of need.

Religion almost cost me my eternity. Had I died at age 15 my jaw would’ve dropped wide open when God told me I could not enter His Heaven. I thought I had Christianity all figured out. My dad was a pastor so naturally I knew it all. I was at every church event, I memorized Bible verses, and I even told people about Jesus Christ. But something was missing in all the performance and the routine. My vain works left me empty and jaded. I began to question God and why I even bothered with church. I began to skip services and avoid people at church. And I filled my life with everything I thought would take away the empty feeling. Then something beautiful happened.

God began reaching out to me in different ways. In the Bible God says, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me. …All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” My Sunday School teachers began to show sincere interest in my life, and they seemed to have joy even through hard times. I began noticing my mom spending time with God early every morning. And I began to see that the people around me who had the most joy were the ones who had a relationship with God and weren’t merely religious people. Then one of the ministers at church spoke on spending daily time with God reading the Bible and praying. Then my mom started leaving her “Daily Bread” devotional book on the table every morning when she was done reading her Bible. I picked it up one morning and found out what it meant to spend time with God. I realized that I had never had a relationship with God and that religiosity had kept me from Him. I confessed that I had lived life my way instead of God’s and that I had been trying to please God with my own hard work. I trusted Jesus’ promise to forgive me and make me His child. I believed that He wouldn’t hold my wrongdoings against me because I trusted that Jesus’ death on the cross paid the price for my trespasses.

Now I know that my eternity is sealed and the burden of religion and salvation by works has been lifted from my soul. I am free to live joyfully for God by His power and through my love relationship with Him.