The date of my salvation is 10/11 Oct 1975 (I'm pretty sure that's the year). It's a blessing to know the date, it's like an extra birthday each year, or re-birthday. It's certainly an important and blessed day in our lives, that day when we become members of the Body of Christ. Let me explain why I claim two days.
During the evening of 10 Oct 1975 I was alone in a beach house that I rented with another friend. The friend was probably at work that evening. He was a cook at a place called Love's BBQ while I worked across the street and down a block as a cook at a dinner house called Sandy's. Our house was on Silver Strand Beach, a little sliver of sand sandwiched between the Seabee Base in Port Hueneme and the Pacific Ocean.
I was feeling particularly alone that evening, and for reasons that I don't even remember, I was sad. I wasn't happy with my life and I just couldn't see anything changing. I felt a little desperate. I was going to college while working full time. I wasn't applying myself over much to my studies because there just wasn't time. I lived in one town, went to college in another town, and worked in a third town, so when you combined classes, work, and travel time, there wasn't much time left in the day. There was a small loft shelf in my room where I remembered placing a Bible that a sister of a friend had felt led to give me one day. I knew that the Bible had something to do with God as I'd been raised in the catholic church, but I didn't know anything about the book beyond that. Until this evening I'd never been inclined to open the book... why I kept the book after it was given to me is for God to explain. I found it and brought it out to the kitchen counter and sat down with it. Hoping I could find some help I opened the Bible up to a random page and it turned out to be about so and so begetting so and so and on down the line. Boring, and at that precise moment I didn't know that the whole book wasn't full of nothing but begetting. God has quite the sense of humor and I've enjoyed that all of these years! After getting tired of reading about begetting, which took all of a minute or less, I flipped to a page farther back in the book. I believe it was somewhere in the gospel of Matthew. At the time I didn't know how the Bible was organized into different books or an old and new testament. If I'd been more knowledgeable I'd of recorded the Words I read for posterity. What I read brought conviction upon me. I realized I was a miserable sinner and Jesus, the Son of God had died for me. That was necessary so that I might have life. I cried like a baby, convicted to the very core of my being. I asked God if He would forgive me. I told him I would like to make Him Lord of my life. I wanted to live for Him. I couldn't stop crying so I went to bed and cried myself to sleep.
Morning came. I crawled out of bed and went into the restroom. When I saw myself in the mirror I could hardly believe what I saw. I had an insane smile on my face and my eyes were glowing. It was when I saw my face that I remembered my experience from the night before. I realized at that moment that God had forgiven me, that He had made me a new person. That I was His now. I was saved forever. I was His! Hallelujah! Praise God!
Thus, I became His on the 10th of October and learned about it on the 11th.
As days and weeks and months went by, I read about what happened to me on that glorious day(s) in the Bible and I understood. It was interesting to know what happened to me and then see what I already knew confirmed and described in the Word of God.
A year later I found myself in South America, serving the Lord however He pleased. I returned to the USA after a couple of years, and resumed going to college. 48 years later I can say that I couldn't imagine living outside of the Body of Christ. While my life has been mediocre at best, it's been a wonderful life due my salvation and God's willingness to grant that gift to me, and to you. If you haven't yet surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, now would be a good time to do so. He died on the cross for me, and for you. Believe.
During the evening of 10 Oct 1975 I was alone in a beach house that I rented with another friend. The friend was probably at work that evening. He was a cook at a place called Love's BBQ while I worked across the street and down a block as a cook at a dinner house called Sandy's. Our house was on Silver Strand Beach, a little sliver of sand sandwiched between the Seabee Base in Port Hueneme and the Pacific Ocean.
I was feeling particularly alone that evening, and for reasons that I don't even remember, I was sad. I wasn't happy with my life and I just couldn't see anything changing. I felt a little desperate. I was going to college while working full time. I wasn't applying myself over much to my studies because there just wasn't time. I lived in one town, went to college in another town, and worked in a third town, so when you combined classes, work, and travel time, there wasn't much time left in the day. There was a small loft shelf in my room where I remembered placing a Bible that a sister of a friend had felt led to give me one day. I knew that the Bible had something to do with God as I'd been raised in the catholic church, but I didn't know anything about the book beyond that. Until this evening I'd never been inclined to open the book... why I kept the book after it was given to me is for God to explain. I found it and brought it out to the kitchen counter and sat down with it. Hoping I could find some help I opened the Bible up to a random page and it turned out to be about so and so begetting so and so and on down the line. Boring, and at that precise moment I didn't know that the whole book wasn't full of nothing but begetting. God has quite the sense of humor and I've enjoyed that all of these years! After getting tired of reading about begetting, which took all of a minute or less, I flipped to a page farther back in the book. I believe it was somewhere in the gospel of Matthew. At the time I didn't know how the Bible was organized into different books or an old and new testament. If I'd been more knowledgeable I'd of recorded the Words I read for posterity. What I read brought conviction upon me. I realized I was a miserable sinner and Jesus, the Son of God had died for me. That was necessary so that I might have life. I cried like a baby, convicted to the very core of my being. I asked God if He would forgive me. I told him I would like to make Him Lord of my life. I wanted to live for Him. I couldn't stop crying so I went to bed and cried myself to sleep.
Morning came. I crawled out of bed and went into the restroom. When I saw myself in the mirror I could hardly believe what I saw. I had an insane smile on my face and my eyes were glowing. It was when I saw my face that I remembered my experience from the night before. I realized at that moment that God had forgiven me, that He had made me a new person. That I was His now. I was saved forever. I was His! Hallelujah! Praise God!
Thus, I became His on the 10th of October and learned about it on the 11th.
As days and weeks and months went by, I read about what happened to me on that glorious day(s) in the Bible and I understood. It was interesting to know what happened to me and then see what I already knew confirmed and described in the Word of God.
A year later I found myself in South America, serving the Lord however He pleased. I returned to the USA after a couple of years, and resumed going to college. 48 years later I can say that I couldn't imagine living outside of the Body of Christ. While my life has been mediocre at best, it's been a wonderful life due my salvation and God's willingness to grant that gift to me, and to you. If you haven't yet surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, now would be a good time to do so. He died on the cross for me, and for you. Believe.
