HAVE YOU EVER...been a good person?

            21 years ago, I was sitting at my computer at Southwest Baptist University typing a paper.  My good high school friend, ‘Becca Creed called to tell me it was her birthday and I had forgotten.  I was so happy to hear her voice.  This was back before cell phones.  We were lucky enough to be in the same area code even though we were 30 minutes apart, at different schools.  Long distance calls to your friends were expensive. 

            I told ‘Becca that I was writing my testimony for my Old Testament class.  Dr. Bing Bayer was my professor and I was stuck in a class with ALL seminary majors.  I had been one of the last kids to sign up for classes my freshman year.  There had been a mix up and now by God’s great blessings I was stuck with these incredibly holy kids and my all-time favorite teacher of the Bible.  I told her how scared I was to share my testimony.  I didn’t even know where to start…

            I grew up going to church whenever the doors were opened.  My parents were Christians and we read the Bible at home too.  I knew God’s word.  I had gone forward in kindergarten and gotten baptized.  My memories were of my friends doing it though.  Granted it had been a long time, I still just didn’t have a good feeling about it all. 

           

‘Becca said to me, “Angie, you’re a better person than I am!”

Immediately, my whole life flashed before my eyes.  I was a good person.  Whenever, I brought new friends home or started dating a guy, my dad would ask me one question.  Are they a Christian?  Not do they go to church?  Do they get good grades?  How did you meet?  Always, are they a Christian? 

Many times I would answer with something like, “I think so.  Their family seems like good people.” 

Dad would always say, “Good people don’t go to heaven.  Saved people do.”

I’m not asking you to question your faith.  This is just the path that I took.  I prayed to Jesus that night to come into my heart and save me from my sins.  It took a lot of faith to move forward from that spot.  I went forward at my church again and was baptized again.  God knew my heart as a child, but I knew my heart in that moment. 

What I am asking you to do is think about the people around you.  Jesus is coming back soon OR you could get hit by a truck tomorrow.  Is your heart right with God?  Are the people in your family going to join you in heaven?  Do the people you work with know Jesus?  Are you walking a walk that is a testimony to nonbelievers? 

Happy Birthday to my friend, ‘Becca Creed Nimrod!  Happy Birthday to me on my Christian birthday!  I am redeemed by the blood of the lamb!  Saved forever I am!

HAVE YOU EVER…been saved?

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Romans 3:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life 

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Romans 6:23

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  Romans 10:13