Finding Christ As A Personal Savior |
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Jerry's Testimony
28 September 2000
I was twenty-eight years old before I found Christ as my Savior and Lord. From my earliest memories our family attended the Methodist church in our small town near Seattle. My Dad was the superintendent of the Sunday school for many years. In the fall 1937, the year that I graduated from high school, Dad asked me if I would like to teach a Sunday school class. He just asked me in a nice way and I could easily have said no. He would not have loved me any less. I took the challenge. I hardly knew the Bible, but I was always good at reading, so I took a class of sixth graders.
I always liked the works of the Apostle Paul. I liked the account of his conversion on the road to Damascus. The Lord knocked him off his horse and blinded him for a few days while he was on his way to Damascus to persecute and kill the new Christian converts. He became one of the most fervent Christians and wrote more books of the Bible then Christ's disciples who were actually with Jesus person to person. The Apostle Paul never met Christ face to face, but through the person of the Holy Spirit was guided in his writings and ministry (Galatians 1:11-12 & 2 Peter 1:21.)
I taught this Sunday school class until 1939. I was now twenty years old. I had to go to work at the original Carnation milk farm, cleaning the calf pens. There were one hundred employees and a bunkhouse and a mess hall. I worked for $35.00 a month and room and board. I had to save enough to pay my way to California. I worked there for nine months.
I then moved to California in 1940. I got my job at North American Aviation Inc. in Los Angeles. I found a Methodist church at 107th and Yukon. It is no longer there. After a while I was asked to teach a Sunday school class and guess what, it was another sixth grade class. I taught there another year and a half until Pearl Harbor. Then I had to work ten-hour days and some Sundays. All of this time I was practicing the "GOOD WORK" mode to save my soul, but I was sill a lost sinner.
My wife Esther and I met in November 1942 and were married at her mother's apartment in 1943. I started going to Esther's Lutheran church in LA. The pastor had married us. Four years after we were married in 1947 the pastor asked me if I would like to join the church. What took so long? I went to catechism class once a week at the pastor's house for six months. It was a real eye opener for me. I started to learn about the great GRACE of God with these scripture verses. Romans 3:23 "FOR ALL HAVE SINNED AND HAVE COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD." Romans 3:10 "AS IT IS WRITTEN, THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO NOT ONE." These were the Apostle Paul's writings. The scripture that impressed me most at the time was: Ephesians 2:8 & 9 "FOR BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED THROUGH FAITH; AND THAT NOT OF YOURSELVES; IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD: NOT OF WORKS, LEST ANY MAN SHOULD BOAST." Romans 4:5 "BUT TO HIM THAT WORKETH NOT, BUT BELIEVETH ON HIM THAT JUSTIFIETH THE UNGODLY, HIS FAITH IS COUNTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Romans 4:3 "ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD AND IT WAS COUNTED UNTO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Genesis 15:6 and James 2:23 also impressed me.
We were never taught in the Methodist Church that we were sinners in need of a Savior and we were never taught these key scriptures. Not all Methodist churches are the same though. I was just full of "good works" trying to work my way to heaven. The really good works come after you know Christ as Savior because they come from a thankful heart of a person saved by grace.
March 21, 1948 was the confirmation day (Sunday) at church. I was with about six others being confirmed in front of the congregation. We were asked if we would "RENOUNCE THE DEVIL AND HIS WICKED WAYS." We answered, "we do." We were asked about a dozen other questions too. That day was the happiest day of my life. I felt such freedom in my heart and couldn't figure out what had happened to me, until I realized that I had been born-again and had received forgiveness. I was still a sinner, but had received a new nature. "IF ANY MAN BE IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW CREATURE" 2 Corinthians 5:17. From that time to this day I have known that I will go to heaven. We are told in the Bible that we are supposed to know this for sure. 1 John 5:13 says "THESE THINGS HAVE I WRITTEN UNTO YOU THAT BELIEVE ON THE NAME OF THE SON OF GOD; THAT YE MAY KNOW THAT YE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE, AND THAT YE MAY BELIEVE ON THE SON OF GOD."
We will always have to deal with our old sinful nature. Paul wrote to the Romans the following: Romans 7:19 "FOR THE GOOD THAT I WOULD, I DO NOT: BUT THE EVIL, WHICH I WOULD NOT, THAT I DO." And in Romans 7:21 he wrote. "I FIND THEN A LAW, THAT, WHEN I WOULD DO GOOD, EVIL IS PRESENT WITH ME."
We still have the same troubles and temptations that we had before we were saved, but we can always call on Christ for strength and forgiveness. We inherited our nature from Adam and Eve and everyone in the world is infected, but Christ was sent to redeem us. This was one more thing that I learned from the confirmation class. (Origin of our sinful nature)
The Sunday after I was confirmed, the pastor asked if I would teach a Sunday school class, sixth grade again. I taught the class for four years with a much different attitude.
1 Timothy 2:5 & 6 "FOR THERE IS ONE GOD, AND ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MEN, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS, WHO GAVE HIMSELF A RANSOM FOR ALL, TO BE TESTIFIED IN DUE TIME."
Isaiah 64:6 "BUT WE ARE ALL AS AN UNCLEAN THING, AND ALL OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ARE AS FILTHY RAGS."
James 2:20 "FOR WHOSOEVER SHALL KEEP THE WHOLE LAW, AND YET OFFEND IN ONE POINT, HE IS GUILTY OF ALL."