Set free 47
Well-Known Member
I grew in a pretty liberal household. My parents would have been nominal Christians at best. We attended and belonged to several liberal churches: Up until I was about 8, we attended a Unitarian church, later a Disciples of Christ church, and starting when I was in my teens we went to a Unity church. But unlike my family, I believed the Bible was true and was God's word. I remember listening to Billy Graham's Crusades in the 1960's as a teen. But I realized even then I could not live up to living a Christian life the Graham insisted needed to happen to be a Christian.
In 1975, I worked at a Bell Telephone place and I happened work near a guy who had recently become saved at a Baptist church. He told me that at a revival he come to trust Christ as his Savior. I had enough liberal thinking from college and my family that I kind of ridiculed his fundamentalist beliefs that everything from Genesis on was to be taken literal. Needless to say, we argued a lot and he was always showing me this and that verse in his KJV Bible. He did show me in several passages that we are saved not by our works, but by our faith in Christ. Mostly I would get on him about his belief that the Bible said that drinking and smoking were sins and you gotta quit, and that when you got saved you had to start tithing, no exceptions, and other things. I remember once saying something to him like, "You mean you have to do all that to be saved?" He told me plainly, "Look Phil, just believe!"
I remember one night in December 1975 after my wife and daughter went to bed that I decided to find out if the Bible really said that you can be saved just by believing. I decided to pick a book that this saved guy quoted from a lot: Romans. In just the first five chapters of Romans, and particularly chapters 3 and 5, it clearly said that Christ, who died and rose from the dead, took all our sins upon Himself on the cross for us. That his shed blood and death reconciled us to God and saved us giving us everlasting life. What an emotional moment for me. I knew I believed that Christ was Lord and God, but now I sure believed what He did on the cross to save me. This was so simple: He shed his blood and died to save me! And I thought, this means I am saved that that I will have eternal life! I felt so sorry for all the sins I committed in my life I remember seeing something that is in the beginning of the Gospel accounts in most Bible which says, "The Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." I thought, I really know what this means now because He really is my Savior.
I remember telling my wife, who was Catholic then, that Christ's death on the Cross completely saves us if we believe it. She said that "the Church" meaning RCC, says that we have to also do our part. I tried to convince her that Christ did it all on the cross. Today, my wife does believe that Christ did it all and that saves her. I remember telling that saved guy at work that I heard a preacher say, "I am not going to Heaven because of anything I have done: I am going to Heaven because of what Jesus Christ has done for me." The guy at work responded, then that guy is saved.
I have had people over the years try to chip away and destroy my assurance of salvation through Christ alone. It seems people want to add this or that to salvation by grace alone thur faitn alone and say that faith alone is not enough. But I have somehow survived these attacks. I know that the Holy Spirit always assures us that we are His, if we will sistem to Him.
I do hope God will use this testimony of mine to reach any unbeliever to become a saved believer.
In 1975, I worked at a Bell Telephone place and I happened work near a guy who had recently become saved at a Baptist church. He told me that at a revival he come to trust Christ as his Savior. I had enough liberal thinking from college and my family that I kind of ridiculed his fundamentalist beliefs that everything from Genesis on was to be taken literal. Needless to say, we argued a lot and he was always showing me this and that verse in his KJV Bible. He did show me in several passages that we are saved not by our works, but by our faith in Christ. Mostly I would get on him about his belief that the Bible said that drinking and smoking were sins and you gotta quit, and that when you got saved you had to start tithing, no exceptions, and other things. I remember once saying something to him like, "You mean you have to do all that to be saved?" He told me plainly, "Look Phil, just believe!"
I remember one night in December 1975 after my wife and daughter went to bed that I decided to find out if the Bible really said that you can be saved just by believing. I decided to pick a book that this saved guy quoted from a lot: Romans. In just the first five chapters of Romans, and particularly chapters 3 and 5, it clearly said that Christ, who died and rose from the dead, took all our sins upon Himself on the cross for us. That his shed blood and death reconciled us to God and saved us giving us everlasting life. What an emotional moment for me. I knew I believed that Christ was Lord and God, but now I sure believed what He did on the cross to save me. This was so simple: He shed his blood and died to save me! And I thought, this means I am saved that that I will have eternal life! I felt so sorry for all the sins I committed in my life I remember seeing something that is in the beginning of the Gospel accounts in most Bible which says, "The Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." I thought, I really know what this means now because He really is my Savior.
I remember telling my wife, who was Catholic then, that Christ's death on the Cross completely saves us if we believe it. She said that "the Church" meaning RCC, says that we have to also do our part. I tried to convince her that Christ did it all on the cross. Today, my wife does believe that Christ did it all and that saves her. I remember telling that saved guy at work that I heard a preacher say, "I am not going to Heaven because of anything I have done: I am going to Heaven because of what Jesus Christ has done for me." The guy at work responded, then that guy is saved.
I have had people over the years try to chip away and destroy my assurance of salvation through Christ alone. It seems people want to add this or that to salvation by grace alone thur faitn alone and say that faith alone is not enough. But I have somehow survived these attacks. I know that the Holy Spirit always assures us that we are His, if we will sistem to Him.
I do hope God will use this testimony of mine to reach any unbeliever to become a saved believer.
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to RF!!
I love this. Thank you for sharing!
