My Salvation Testimony

After David’s sin with Bathsheba, he wrote in Psalms, “Restore to me the Joy of my Salvation.”  You see, no matter how important you are, no matter how much wealth you have, nothing brings us JOY like our Salvation.

I was raised in a shack way out in the country.  We did not have indoor plumbing.  We grew our own vegetables and raised chickens, pigs, and cows.  Our clothing was made from the cloth sacks of flour we bought which is how they used to sell flour (I’m very old!).  Our furniture was cardboard boxes. 

But one thing we did have was a dad who insisted we all get together: my mom, dad, and all 4 of us girls, every night to read the bible and pray. 

There was no Church Of Christ anywhere near where we lived, so my dad and one other man actually built one after meeting in a shack nearby for a while and inviting others to join us. 

My dad, his entire life, gave 30% of his income to the church.  We spent our Sunday afternoons visiting sick people in the hospital.  We never were allowed to go to school socials, listen to music on the radio, or even to church socials once we became teens, and were never allowed to date.  I was in college before a boy ever held my hand.  It so startled me when he took my hand that I dropped my schoolbooks and all the papers I was holding!  So embarrassing.

Even though as a child I read the bible myself every day, I knew that the pastors we later were able to hire once the church grew, that they knew Greek and Hebrew, and had studied the bible on a college level.  So, I took what I was taught as truth. I was so very afraid to sin.  I remember one sermon about how sandals were immodest!

The only problem was we were taught you had to work for salvation.  As kids we were required to memorize the ‘Five Steps’ to salvation along with all the scripture verses that they came from:  They were Hear, Believe, Repent, Confess, and Be baptized.  Oh, and by the way, every single time you sinned, you lost your salvation.  In all the pictures of myself as a child, it was rare that there was one I was smiling in.  Now, I know the glorious truth that Eph. 2:8-9 tells us.  Which is that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus and not by our own efforts or works. Grace Alone. Faith Alone. Christ alone.

Needless to say, we were in church every time the doors were open.  I was sent to a Church of Christ College, which is now Faulkner University.  After that, I dutifully went to Stamford, Connecticut to work on building a Church of Christ because there was none in that area, so we knew everyone there was going to Hell. 300 recently graduated college students from various Churches of Christ colleges moved there. There was actually an article about it in U. S. News and World Report.  They called it “The Exodus”. Once that building was completed and I’d worked so hard to evangelize during all my spare time, I helped build another one in White Plains, New York, where I was an IBM Marketing Representative.  Because everyone there was certainly on their way to Hell too without the Church Of Christ.

Then I rebelled and sowed some wild oats.  Looking back, I believe it was because after so much strict discipline and working so hard in the church, there was zero true joy.  It was emptiness.  My roommate, Kathy Brown, and I would go to bars, and I even smoked some marijuana a few times.  She was Church of Christ too, and she never would have done that though we both did drink a little.

I had my heart broken by a guy and was hospitalized for several months for severe depression, and then moved back to Alabama.  I settled in Birmingham and went to the Homewood Church of Christ.  For fun, I joined some friends to take Karate class and eventually earned a black belt.  I dated a guy who taught there and, since he was homeless and had no paying job, he moved into my apartment.  I felt like because of this I was too unworthy (yes, we had S E X) to attend a Church of Christ, and felt maybe I’d just go to Briarwood since they were all going to Hell too to my Church of Christ way of thinking. I heard the REAL gospel there and became heartsick and depressed at my blatant rebellion against the Lord.

The guy I was living with was treating me badly (yet I ended up marrying him later).   Codependency.  I went to see one of the associate pastors at Briarwood, Roland Travis.  He prayed with me to receive the Lord.  I knew I couldn’t go back to my own apartment because Terry, my boyfriend, was there and I can’t stand up to anyone.  (codependent). So, after packing some clothes, I went to spend a few nights with a married girl friend from college.  I told my boyfriend, Terry, he’d have to move out.  He just didn’t. I guess he was a squatter! But, he finally got the message and moved to Texas because he’d found a good job there.  I moved back to MY OWN APARTMENT and began going to bible studies at Briarwood.

2 Corinthians 3:6  tells us that the Letter of the Law kills; but the Spirit gives life.  This is exactly what happened to me.  With all my work and discipline, I was trying to achieve the letter of the law.  And it was killing me.  But when the Holy Spirit came into my heart, it gave me life.

It was like being on Mars. I believe it was in September of 1902, (Just kidding, 1978) when I was 31 years old. (Yes, I’m 75 so stop trying to do the math in your heads!) I found out about mercy, grace, and acceptance.  I couldn’t get enough books at the Christian Book Store.  Most times, I’d underline and highlight every word. 

Since then, I’ve known sorrow, and I’ve known Joy.  But there is nothing that is as great a Joy Giver as knowing my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.