Getting Saved

In the early '60's I was serving on the school board of the rural school our boys attended.  A neighbor who was also on the board rode to one meeting with me and when we got back to his house afterward he didn't get out of the car.  We just sat there and chatted for a while then he started sharing with me about Jesus.  I thought he was crazy and my wife thought we must be out partying because I didn't get home until 3 am.  The next day when I went to work I told some people: "This guy told me he knows he is going to heaven."  I thought this was a big joke because no one could know that they were going to heaven.  Could they?

We continued our lifestyle for the next 7 years but God was working.  He brought a whole new set of friends into our life and they were all talking about Jesus.  We would sit up all night (almost) discussing scripture and what it meant to us.

One couple in particular kind of took us under their wing.  They would take us to hear speakers.  One night they took us and another couple to Concordia to hear a preacher.  There was a nun there who had come because one of her piano students was providing special music that night.  When the preacher gave the invitation to come to the front to accept Jesus we were amazed to see her go down the aisle.  On the way home I said:  "That preacher was looking straight at me all night".  The other couple husband who was with us said:  "Oh, no!  He was looking at me".  We were both under conviction about our lifestyle but we were tough, we resisted.

Shortly after that a professional football player by the name of Bill Glass was scheduled to speak in our town.  (He was an all-American at Baylor University and later played for the Cleveland Browns)  I was asked to be a counsellor as a representative of the Catholic church.  On May 30, 1971 we went to the meeting in the grade school gym.This time the conviction got the best of us and when he gave the invitation we and our three sons and a niece went forward.  It was a great moment---and what a relief!!  All of our burdens were lifted and immediately we experienced a new freedom.

Meanwhile---back at the ranch---.  During the meeting there was a bad storm.  We had trouble getting home because there was water over the road.  My sister, who was at our house, with our little  daughter and her 2 small children, was running bathwater for the kids when the storm hit. She gathered up the 3 kids and took them to the old root cellar in the back yard.  That took real courage because it hadn't been used for so long that there were snakes and spiders etc. down there.  When we finally got home we found that the barn had blown down, the back screen door was ripped off, and the bathtub had overflowed.  

I think the devil was really mad because he had lost 6 of his own that night!!!

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."   John 3:16  NIV

"He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.  I write these things to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."   I John 5:12-13  NIV