//my testimony//

I grew up in a Christian home with Christian parents who were always in church. If fact, I was in church before I was born. In 1999 I was scared that when I died I would go to hell, but I didn’t want to.  So I talked with my mom about it. She took me through the Romans Road and explained the plan of salvation to me. So I prayed the “salvation prayer” trusting in it to take me to heaven when I died. I can still remember that experience in Kansas very vividly in my mind.

So for the next, maybe 7 years I thought that I was saved. I did all the right things, I knew all the right words and I knew the facts, but I didn’t know Him! In the bottom of my heart I knew I wasn’t saved.  When I was about 13-15 I started doubting my salvation, but I would just shrug it of because I knew I prayed that prayer when I was 6 years old. But it isn’t a prayer that saves you; it is putting your faith in God and trusting in HIM to take you to heaven.

I was involved in many ministries in our church; I loved the Lord and wanted to serve him….how could I NOT be saved? The Bible says in 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.  I knew that I couldn’t work my way to heaven but, in the back of my mind that is what I was thinking. Every time my Pastor or any preacher preached about heaven, I would just cringe in my seat. I dreaded every invitation when my Pastor would say, do you know that you know, that you know where you will spend eternity? I didn’t, but every service I would raise my hand saying that I did know. The only thing holding me back was pride. What would everyone think? They already think I am saved. Yet the Bible says in Proverbs 16:18, Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. It doesn’t matter what people think or what they will say, you need to do what is right.

Quite frequently I would stay awake thinking about ‘what if I don’t wake up, where will I be’? I knew where I would be and that was hell. I must have said a million prayers hoping that one of them be the “right one”. But none of them was I trusting in God, they were just words out of my mouth. I went on a long time like that.    

Then in the summer of 2008 our church was having out teen camp. I decided not to go that year as a camper. So I went to help out in the kitchen. In our spare time we would go to the chapel and listen to the preaching. They were not all salvation messages that week, only the ones we went to J.  God was really working in my heart that week to just get it settled and quit fighting with him. But I just kept telling him no because of my pride.
  

But, then on the last night I just couldn’t fight it anymore. I didn’t care what anybody thought or said. I told my Pastors wife that I wasn’t saved and so she took me to the last bench in the chow hall and talked to me a little bit. She didn’t need to show me any verses because I knew them all. So right then and there on May 30^th, 2008 I put my faith in God and trusted him and what he did on Calvary to save me and take me to heaven when I die.

Don’t let pride be what holds you back from spending eternity with God in Heaven. It was defiantly a lasting experience on me! It is also an experience every person should have!