My Salvation Testimony

One of the things I love to do most is to tell people about my own life changing encounter with Christ. I was a senior in high school. I was just about to graduate. And my English teacher gave us one final assignment. He put a bowl on the table filled with slips of paper. He said, "Each slip of paper has a value on it. And whatever you pull out, you have to write about why that value is important." One kid pulled out equality. So he wrote a paper on equality. One kid pulled out kindness. So he wrote a paper on kindness. I pulled out salvation.

And I wasn’t a Christian at the time, so I didn’t want salvation. I tried to trade with someone else. But no one else wanted salvation, either.

So I wrote my paper. And basically I said that the reason why salvation was important was because it gave you the security of knowing that you were going to heaven.

God must have really liked that paper. Because after that, he kept sending Christians into my life! I graduated from high school, and I met a Christian at my summer job. She said "You need God in your life. I said "Why? I’m 18 years old! I’ve got my whole life in front of me! Everything is going well! Why do I need God now?"

And she said, "That’s when I thank God the most, because He’s the One who makes things go well."

And I remember thinking, "Boy, that’s a good answer." And so that summer, I started reading the Bible.

In the fall, I went to Ohio University. I met a guy named Dave who was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ. And he said, "You need Christ in your life. He died for you on the cross. He rose again on Easter Sunday. And if you put your faith in Him, he’ll forgive all your sins, and you’ll get to go to heaven. Then he told me the other side of the good news. If you don’t accept Christ, you’re going to hell."

And I was like, "Tell me what you REALLY think!" But something in my heart told me that the guy was speaking the truth! My whole life, I thought that because I was a good person, God was going to let me into heaven.

And now I was starting to realize that this was not true. I needed Christ. I needed the Lamb of God to take away my sins.

So I went back to my dorm room. About a week later, I got down on my knees and I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. And immediately, I felt like 100 pounds of burdens and stresses were taken from my shoulders. I felt clean before God, cleaner than I have ever felt in my whole life.

When I first accepted Christ as my savior, the guy who led me to the Lord said, “We gotta get you a Bible.”

And I said to him, “I don’t have time to read the Bible. I just started college! I have a zillion things to read just to keep from getting kicked out of school!”
The guy said, “Just try it out. Read the first two chapters of John. Then we’ll meet for lunch on Saturday and talk about it.”

I went home that day with a brand new Bible. I read the first two chapters of John. And right away, I said to myself, “I’ve never read anything so wonderful in my whole life! Why don’t they teach the book of John in the Jewish religion?” And ever since that day, the word of God has been my source of spiritual sustenance. I am living proof that the ones who are hungry for the things of God will be satisfied.

Shortly after coming to Christ, I went to church for the first time (a Nazarene church). I don't remember what the sermon was about. But I do remember God speaking to my heart, "Someday, you're going to be doing what that man is doing. You're going to be a pastor."
11 years later, that word came true, and I've been serving in the same church since that time.