Testimony of my Salvation
My family was not a religious family. As a child, I did not have any religious upbringing. I had never been to Church, except for a funeral or a wedding. But yet I still believed in God, but I did not know Him and I was not saved. My younger sister was saved about a month before me. She started witnessing to me and the Holy Spirit started convicting me.
My sister told me that God will keep knocking and knocking until I open the door. She told me that I was responsible for teaching my 3 boys about God. I think this is what really got to me. I had not taught my boys anything, but how could I teach them, when I knew nothing. The next day was Sunday and I got up early. I was thinking about what my sister said and then I heard my door bell. There stood a little boy that I had never seen before. When I opened the door, the little boy looked up at me and said can Ryan go to Church with me. I started crying and the little boy looked at me as if I was crazy. I told him that Ryan was sleeping, but perhaps he could go next Sunday. As I shut the door, I thought of what my sister said to me "God will keep knocking" and I laughed as I thought to myself He didn't knock, He rang the door bell.
I spent a week thinking about what my sister had said and what had happened. It was in October and I wanted to plant some pine trees and clear some ground for a flower garden for the next year. So I started digging up clumps of grass. I looked at that dirty clump and I thought this is me. I am as dirty as this clump of grass. So I started shaking it and the dirt started falling from it. I prayed out to God to forgive me. I was crying so hard and as I shock the dirt from the clump I was asking God to cleanse me. I told Him that I did not want to be dirty like this clump. I was kneeling in the dirt and crying. Then I felt something fall down my face. It fell so slowly. Almost like slow motion as if someone's hand. It fell down my nose and landed in the dirt. As I looked down at it, it was a hosta leaf. I looked up at all my hosta plants. All of them were brown and dead from the frost, but this leaf was so green and alive. I could not believe it. As I looked at it, I felt such a peace that I have never known before. I knew that this leaf was from God. So I wanted to keep it. I took it into the house. My hands were dirty, so I opened my Bible with one finger and slipped it in. I went back outside, but this time I was talking to God. I was out there for hours, talking and praying. I will never forget the peace that I felt that day. When I got done, I wanted to see my leaf, so I went inside and washed my hands. I started leafing through the bible to find it. When I found it, I looked down and this was the passage that it was on.
Isaiah 65:16 "That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes".
This was the very first verse that I had read. When I read it, I cried. I knew that this was a personal promise to me from God. So I took that Hosta leaf and wrote that verse and made a book mark out of them.
From that point, I could not get enough of God's word. I started reading a bible that I had got somewhere. Isn't it funny, I had a bible for years and never read it. As I tried to read this bible, the print was so small that I could not. So I wanted to go and buy another bible. I went to about 3 stores, but could not find one with bigger wording. Then I started to get mad, because they were so expensive. I kept thinking that someone is making a profit off God's word. I was going to another store and I was stopped at a red light. I started getting mad as I thought about it and I looked up and saw upon the telephone wires, perhaps 200 doves. I had never seen this before. That many doves all stretched out on the wire between the telephone poles and as I looked at them I felt peaceful. I never did find the bible that I wanted, so I came home and when I picked up my old bible to read I just flipped open and read; Luke 3:22 "And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased".
Now when I read anything about doves, I think of that day. I never found a bible that day, but two days later my sister sent me one.
I didn't go to Church, because I didn't know where to go. I didn't know enough of the bible, so how would I know who was telling the truth. So I prayed to God to teach me and He did. As I read his word, there were many times that I would come to a place that I could not understand. I would bow my head and ask God. Then the answer would just pop in my head. So clear and I would understand. I remember when I got to Matthew 24 when it talked about the fig tree. I didn't understand what it meant. So I prayed to God for the meaning.
A day or so later the year 1948 started popping in my head. I couldn't understand it. I wasn't even born then. What did it mean? I would not be thinking of anything and it would pop in. So I had to find out what it meant. I went to the library and I found that Israel became a country in 1948 and so I knew that Israel was the fig tree.
Before I was saved, I hated to read or study anything, but after I was saved, I could not get enough. I would study and take notes and be buried in papers. My whole family thought that I had gone nuts. They knew me before and they knew this was not like me. They could not understand it and some were upset by it. That did not stop me and since that time, I have filled up 3 huge filing cabinets with all my notes and papers. It says that you will be a new creature. This is so true, because the Lord has made a new creature out of me and I am no longer that dirty clump of grass.
Written on 26th June 2003