I’ve shared this before, but it pretty well “sums it up” and never changes. I’m thankful that 46 years ago tonight (June 24, 1973, Sunday night) the Lord saved my soul. It was the second Sunday night of the revival at Cornwell’s Chapel Missionary Baptist Church. Bro. Floyd Ferguson preached from Luke 16 about the rich man who went to hell. The word of God had its effect on me that night.
I was “pricked in the heart” like the people of Israel in Acts 2:37. There was a miserable feeling of condemnation that came over me. It was an awful feeling of fear and “trouble and sorrow,” but I’m thankful for it, because it was the very God of heaven – the creator of all things – letting “me” know that “I” was lost and separated from Him and that “I” needed to make things right with Him – by “repentance toward God and faith toward Jesus Christ.” As soon as I realized the situation, there was no doubt in my mind what I would do. There would be no running from God. There is no place to hide from God, and what a foolish thing it is to try. I made up my mind that I would “seek the Lord” until I could find Him and “know” Him for myself and He could “know me” as “His child.”
When we got home from church, I went to bed and began trying to pray. It seemed like a long time that I tried to talk to God and ask for His mercy toward “me, a sinner.” I was miserable and couldn’t seem to find any relief. It was late – probably 11:00 p.m. or later – and I was about to give up for the night, having done all “I” could do. Realizing that there was nothing “I” could do, that there was “nothing that I could offer,” I then spoke to God from the depth of my heart, “believing on Him with all of my heart” and He – the very God of heaven and earth – heard my plea for His help and “spoke peace to my soul.” All of the fear, trouble, sorrow and condemnation in my soul was immediately gone – never to return. I then “knew” the Lord, and the Lord “knew” me.
I’m so thankful that I won’t ever have to worry about hearing the words of the Lord, “depart from me, I never knew you” because on June 24, 1973, around 11:00 p.m. (as a 10-year old girl), I came to “know” God, I became His child, and He wrote my name in the “book of life.” “16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” Romans 8:16 (KJV) I didn’t tell anyone at the time. I wanted to and meant to – but really quickly, Satan stepped in and tried to convince me that I didn’t really “know” that my soul had been saved. I listened to him for a little while – until the Lord “called me to follow Him.” The Lord let me know that He wanted me to unite with “His body,” “His Church” and serve Him and live my life the way He would have me to.
After a while of wrestling with Satan over that, I called on the Lord to help me not to fail Him. The Lord helped me – allowed me – to unite with His Church. I was “baptized into His body, His Church” in September of that year. What a wonderful blessing that has been – and it just keeps getting better and better! There’s no way to count all that the Lord has done for me.
What a truly amazing and wonderful thing it is that God himself was willing to interact (and still does every day) with a “speck of dust” like me and that it is His desire that “every human being” come to “truly know” Him in this way, to serve Him in His Church, and to be able to partake of God’s rich, rich blessings. I will end up with one (one of many) of my favorite verses: “17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And ‘whosoever will’, let him take the water of life freely.” Rev 22:17 (KJV)
May God bless all!
