Yesterday in our monthly ladies meeting at church I asked for volunteers to share their testimonies.  Some looked at me like deer in the headlights while others smiled with confidence and willingly shared.  Now, understand, I don't believe that those who looked at me in terror have any less of a testimony to share.  Knowing these ladies I'm confident of their walk with the Lord, but some personalities just find it harder to speak in public or to put something so personal "out there".

It was so neat to hear the common thread in all of the testimonies we heard.  First, that the work of salvation was so obviously that of the Holy Spirit in their lives.  Every one acknowledged that it was God's Word that gave them understanding.  Although most, if not all, had some kind of "church background" it was not until God wooed them into reading the Bible that they had the heart change that totally turned their lives around.

I think also, that every one of them had a person in their lives that instigated their renewed interest in things of God.  For one it was a Sunday School teacher when she was a teen/young adult for another a former school mate that just felt prompted to call her and ask about the state of her salvation.  Pretty cool how God uses His people in this most important process.

For me, I grew up in the church.  My father was a pastor and I knew all of the right answers.  I also knew that I had a horrible temper.  At one point I had been so mad that I swung my younger brother around until he hit his nose on a chair and it bled and bled.  I knew that I needed help beyond myself.  I was about 8 or 9 years old.  I prayed and prayed but it seemed that nothing really changed.  You see, I was asking God to change one thing about my life when in reality I should have been asking Him to change ALL of me.  To make me into all that He would have me be.

One day during a regular old church service...no revival...we hadn't even gotten to the sermon yet, I was singing a hymn and the words spoke to me.  It was there and then without fanfare or even tears that I totally committed myself to God.  I accepted His invitation to follow His leading to the best of my ability.  Strange, huh?  All of those times that I had responded to altar calls.  All of the tears and trying on my part.  And yet it was a quiet moment when no one else knew that changed me forever.

I hope that you'll think back to that day....or that period of time when God got your attention.  When you realized that you couldn't use God as a band-aid or a crutch but you had to surrender.  All of you.

That's what He is after.  He will not be our co-pilot.  He is the Pilot.  The buck stops with Him.
And that, my friends is the best place in the world to place our trust.

I pray that some how, some way when I get to Heaven there will be people there because He used me in their lives to get their attention.  That would be so sweet.  But however He chooses to use me I'm fine with that and I know without a doubt that He could use a donkey, a landscape and even a person's worst enemy just as well.  It is not about us.

Amen Printables

For those who may be reading this and you haven't accepted the wonderful gift of salvation let me just share a few verses that may help make it clearer:

Romans 3:10 - 12  “There is no one righteous, not even one;
11     there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one"

 (We are all in the same condition upon our birth...no one is born a Christian.)


Romans 3: 25, 26   "God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."

(Everyone who comes to God walks through the same door.....acceptance of the Holiness of Christ Jesus and the rejection of our sins on the cross, which He bore for us.)

John 3:16 - 18  "16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son."

(Such great news!  It is for all who hear and believe.)