Out of Darkness

Confirmation Class, 1963
First United Methodist Church, Fort Payne, AL
(brother, Mark, 3rd boy from left, I'm the little girl, 2nd from left)

"But you are the ones chosen of God...instruments to do His work and speak out for Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light." (1 Peter 2:9)

The photo above was snapped on the day I joined the church and was baptized, but it was not the day Jesus called me out of darkness and into His marvelous light. That day came a few years later at an "altar call" by the young pastor, Bobby Welch, after an evangelistic movie at the DeKalb Theatre. Jesus called; I answered, and He brought me out of the darkness of my sins, forgave me, and granted me His free gift of eternal life.

Oswald Chambers wrote: "Never build your case for forgiveness on the idea that God is our Father and He will forgive us because He loves us. That contradicts the revealed truth of God in Jesus Christ. It makes the Cross unnecessary, and redemption 'much ado about nothing.' God forgives sin only because of the death [and resurrection] of Christ."

Are you out of darkness, beloved, and walking in the light of Jesus Christ? Then speak out His praises to a world still lost in the darkness.