What happened to you the moment you were saved? Each of us has a unique story to tell in response to this question. These stories are powerful and deeply moving. Today, however, I raise the question not to prompt personal testimonies, but to direct us to God’s work in our lives. In other words, what would He say happened to us the moment we were saved?
Although the list below is not an exhaustive one, it does show the magnitude of this great salvation you have received in Christ Jesus.
- God made you alive together with Christ (This was the subject of the first two posts). Paul explains in Ephesians 2:4, 5 and Colossians 2:11-14.
- He transferred you out of the kingdom of darkness and placed you into His kingdom : “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13, 14).
- He added you to His body, the church of Jesus Christ: “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body–whether Jews of Greeks, slave or free–and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:12, 13). “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is part of it” (1Corinthians 12:27).
- God declared you to be His child: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).
- He sent His Spirit to live in you: “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father'” (Galatians 4:6). “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
As you can tell from these few verses, being saved is a big deal. It is much more than receiving a ticket for entry into heaven when you die, or even forgiveness of sins here and now. What happened to you and me at that moment of salvation is monumental.
We weren’t aware of all that happened. We simply responded to the message concerning Christ. When I did, I gained a sense of purpose in life. For the first time, I felt like I was anchored, that I knew I belonged. You may have experienced peace or freedom, or felt that you had been cleansed and a mountain of guilt and shame removed. You may have been overwhelmed by God’s unconditional love and acceptance.
All these experiences are real and genuine because Christ came to live in us. We are different, new creatures according to the Bible. What happened to us is a story worth telling.
The above is WOW!!!!!!! 100%trurh Bob and thank you, we all need reminders with others to help one another in Love God’s typethat is
My testimony is at my blog site godjustloveyou.blogspot.com just put www. first in the browser if anyof you all wish to do so
This is good stuff. All of the above truth has been done on our behalf. If it was left to us we would have messed it up. All we can say now is THANK YOU JESUS>
How my life went from “Empty” to “Full”
After high school, I went to Stetson University in
Florida, and made the tennis team. After two years
there, I transferred to the University of Florida, in
Gainesville, Florida. I continued in Business Administration,
in accounting, but due to Stetson not teaching
us the bookkeeping part of accounting, even though
I could do the accounting part well, I had trouble of
where to place the material in the different accounts.
So I dropped out for a year.
When I came back to the University of Florida,
I changed my major from Business Administration
to Physical Education. During a tennis class tennis
tournament, I won it easily, but I noticed I was having
trouble seeing. Even in a basketball class, as we were
having a drill to go across the court and do layups,
when I went to do my layup, I saw two baskets, due
to double vision. It took me two or more tries before I
was able to put the ball into the basket.
Later, I went to Shand’s Hospital, next to the University,
for a diagnostic test. They discovered I had
cancer. It was a tumor too far back in my throat to do
surgery. So they decided to give me cobalt (radiation) treatments. Fortunately, it was the start of the summer, when I was out of classes,
and they gave me a treatment a day, Mondays through Fridays, for
ten weeks, for a total of fifty treatments.
Near the beginning of the treatments, my mother
sent me a booklet by Bill Bright, who was then the
president of Campus Crusade for Christ, as this was
back in 1972. The booklet was about how we could
let the Holy Spirit come into our lives to truly let Christ
be the Lord of our lives from within. As soon as I read
this, I immediately asked Christ Jesus to come by His
Spirit (by God’s Spirit) from heaven to be the King
and Master and Lord of my life. Before then, Jesus
had just been my Savior. But after Christ became my
Lord, my whole purpose for living changed. I had a
new desire to start sharing Jesus boldly to others. I
no longer desired to be part of the world, with its night
clubs, drinking alcohol to get drunk, nor using women
as just sexual objects to fornicate with. This was
because I learned how to be dead to my old nature
(Read Romans 6:1-23) and how to be led by God’s
Spirit with his new nature (Read Romans 8:1-36).
(Also read, 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Gal. 5:22-26; Eph. 4:24-32;
Colossians 3:1-4, 9-17; Hebrews 2:11-15; 8:13).
I also had a new love for God and his Word, and
one of my favorite daily devotionals is Our Daily
Bread, which you can get free from RBC Minis-
tries. And I love reading different topics in the Bible
by using the Franklin Bookman Holy Bible, which is
hand sized, and I can instantly find Bible verse after
verse on a certain word or phrase in the Old or the
New Testament. Another great devotional is reading
Bible booklets from World Missionary Press; (Or
WMPRESS). There booklets come in many different
titles, like: Help From Above, The Way to God, The
Amazing Life of Jesus Christ, The Power of God,
How to Know God. They’re only about 3” wide, 2”
high, and about 48 pages, packed full of the Word
of God in many different topics. You can even read
these booklets on their website or even listen to readings of it.
Jus to http://www.wmpress.org.World Missionary Press sends their amazing Bible booklets to over 200 Countries, in 337 languages.
I also, no longer had to prove I was better than
others by trying to outdo them in sports, like in tennis.
I now had God’s amazing love in me to love others
with his love, to be kind and considerate to others
around me. And God, by his grace, allowed me, after
I graduated from the UF, to teach school for 31 years,
from 1974 till 2005.
Even though the fifty radiation treatments caused
low saliva and loss of my voice to speak loudly and
clearly, I found that I could reach a lot of lost souls by
simply leaving Bible booklets, from Sowers of Seed,
which a Christian sister in the Lord helped me to dis-
cover. The little Bible booklets are only about 2” wide
and 21/2” in height and around 20 pages of verses to
let people know how to get saved by God through His
Son Jesus Christ.
Even today, I still love sharing Jesus with others,
by leaving the little Bible booklets with parents to give
their children, when I see them in grocery stores; then
a booklet with the cashier when checking out. God
has given me many creative ways in leaving Bible
booklets and gospel messages of Jesus so the lost
can see how to find eternal life through Jesus Christ
too. Some of these are by leaving them at restrooms
at rest stops along highways while I’m traveling, or at
restrooms at campgrounds I camp at, or by keeping
junk mail I get in the mail, that also leaves a postage
paid return letter to mail back. I mail it back with a
Bible booklet showing them how to get God’s free
gift of eternal life! Or I send messages the Lord gives
me, over the internet by email to family, friends and
acquaintances.
May God stir your heart in many creative ways for
you to start sharing His Son Jesus with those around
you in many creative ways! Your life will definitely
have a divine purpose when you start obeying Jesus’
command in Matt. 28:18-20. And you can do it with
God’s power, that he promises us in his word in Act
1:8, But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy
Ghost (the Holy Spirit) is come upon you: and ye
shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem (in the
city we live in), and in all Judaea (in the state we live
in), and in Samaria (in other states around us), and
unto the uttermost part of the earth (and around the
world by our emails, letters or mission trips or by sup-
porting ministries that send or already have native
missionaries in other countries around the world)