AND I GOT HIM!
True Salvation!

 

We all have different stories that are much the same. Here's a piece of my story.

 

Some families are dysfunctional--well, none are perfect--and some families are safe and loving. Mine was safe and loving. I happily grew up with my own parents. And I was basically a normal kid. Not that I didn't get a much-needed spanking from time to time for doing what I knew was wrong. This was the mid-1950's when families could still discipline boys that way. One particular memory of a spanking was that it hurt my pride more than my backside. And it did hurt my backside! But it was cathartic to me. Why? Because I knew I had done wrong. Like the day I stole my friends dump truck out of his sandbox.

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Flashback to a few months before this criminal act. It was morning and mom woke me. "Be sure and make your bed today." She had told me to do that the previous week and I hadn't done it. So, grumbling, I made my bed. It was my first attempt, okay, so it wasn't perfect. But I did it. Then I stood there and thought. Why do we have to make our bed? I'm just going to mess it up tonight. I didn't know it but I was thinking about the meaning of life! I was a first grader!

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So kids can think like philosophers. It's inborn in each of us. Why are we here? What's it all about? Everything is just repeated over and over and over. Where's the meaning?

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The day after I stole my friend's dump truck we went to church. Each Sunday I went to Sunday School. After each lesson, we would sing a song. "Come into my heart, come into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Come in today. Come in to stay. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus!" Yep, I'm an old man and I still remember the lyrics! Don't say what you teach--or model--to a kid isn't important.

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After church, I was riding in the back seat of our powder blue, 1953 Buick. I could sit on the floorboard and play with my toy soldiers. But today, I was in the seat behind the driver's side. My brother was on the other side. There was a big cardboard box between me and my brother. It held canned goods and food that my parents were delivering to a needy family. I was looking out the window at a cornfield. I was mesmerized by the rows that looked like legs walking. Suddenly, I was aware of a presence so profound and real that it scared me. My heart started racing. I tensed.

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It seemed like a long time, but I now believe it could have only been a few seconds that I was scared. Then, just as suddenly I knew this was a being--a person. And this person communicated to me--without words. "Don't be afraid. I want you! Believe in Me!" I felt a gentle, loving pull toward this invisible being.

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Boom! The knowledge of Who it was hit me. It was Jesus. The One I had been studying about at church. The One my mother had told me about the week before when she was tying my shoelace while I stood on the second stair of the staircase. She was kneeling. I had asked her, "How do you get saved?" She had looked up and said, "You have to ask Jesus into your heart."

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Now I know you won't believe this, but I took a minute to decide if I should do it. I remember thinking to myself, do I really want to do this? Do I want to invite Jesus into my heart? I went back and forth on deciding, but finally, I said firmly to myself, yes, I want to do this!

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This is what I said to Him: "Come into my heart, come into my heart, come into my heart." I realized decades later that I prayed the lyrics to that song from Sunday School. Yet I didn't realize it was that song's lyrics at the time. I sincerely meant every word I said.

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I felt like I was floating. I was transported by a period of profound peace and comfort. I remember thinking, I don't want this feeling ever to end. When I finally became aware of the hum of the engine and that I was in the car, I told my parents that I had just been saved. Dad, the driver, jerked his head to look at my mom at the same time she jerked her head to look at my dad. They never said anything, not to me nor to one another. They didn't know if I was sincere or just repeating something I had heard at church. But, ya'll, I really was saved for eternal life that day in the backseat of a 1953 Buick.

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Some of you have your own stories about the time you met Jesus Christ, the One who holds the atoms in the Universe together and who visited His creation as a man to die on a cruel cross to pay our debt to God. Others of you don't have such a story. Yet you can. Put your mind on the God who created you and who provided payment for the human race's rebellion. Give your heart and your life to Jesus.

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Oh, I forgot to tell you about the dump truck. That same day I prayed to Jesus, and after I got home, I returned the dump truck to my friend, confessed, and apologized.

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The Plan of Salvation Taken From the Ancient Writings
of God's True Prophets and Apostles

(using the Holman Christian Standard Bible Translation from the original languages)

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1. Realize that you are a sinner (a lawbreaker or a flawed product) in God's eyes and need salvation.

"For all have sinned [become defective through a deliberate act of rebellion] and fall short of the glory of God (our
destiny and  intended state of being)." Romans 3:23

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2. Every Human Being is doomed for God's garbage dump.

If your hand or your foot causes your downfall,
cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to enter life maimed or lame
than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire [also known as Hell].  (Matthew 18:8)

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3. God loves each of us and wants to redeem us (restore us to our original state of being).
He came in the form of a human being to be our sacrificial lamb.

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“For God loved the world in this way:
He gave His One and Only Son, 
so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish
but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

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4. You must acknowledge that you are out of favor with God,
that is, you must agree with God that you are indeed what He calls you:
a sinner and a breaker of God's laws and purpose for your life.

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The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem
were flocking to him (Jesus),
and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River
as they confessed their sins (their wrongs against God and men). (Mark 1:5)

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5. You must invite Jesus into your heart and life and ask Him to forgive you

for all your sins and to lead and guide you in His Way.
Here are some suggested words you could use to ask Jesus to forgive and save you:

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Jesus, I call upon you to keep your promise to forgive me of all my sins. 
I believe you died for me on the cross and rose from the dead.
I admit I am a sinner. Come into my heart and life and save me.
Give me this new life.

Thank you Jesus for saving me.

Amen

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6. If you sincerely meant this prayer and received the Spirit of Christ--the Holy Spirit--
share it with a Christian friend or pastor of an evangelical-style church. Not all churches are the same.

Email me at boblewis.california@gmail.com and I'll send you some information.

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