There was never a time in my life when I did not believe in the existence of Jesus, but it wasn’t until I was in the 5thgrade, that I experienced Him strongly drawing me unto Himself. Our relationship began at a Billy Graham film at the local theater in Fort Payne, Alabama in the 1960s.
Jesus and I have been friends a LONG time now. Our relationship has grown as He talks to me through His word, the Bible, and I talk to Him through prayer. I learned (and am still learning) to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit who lives in me, and my training ground most always is the Camp of Troubles.
Phillip had a land and timber company in Louisiana that failed in the late 1980s. I was a young, stay-at-home mom of three. Financially, our family was in big trouble. One gray, cloudy day, I stood by a window and cried, “Where are You, Lord?” At that instant, the clouds parted, the light of the sun hit me full in the face for only a few seconds before it was covered once again by the clouds. I “heard” God’s gentle voice say, “Jill, I’m right here. You just can’t see me for these thick clouds of trouble. But just like you know the sun is always above the rain clouds, know that I am always with you.”
During those years of recovery, God provided for our family in amazing ways. He fed us. He clothed us. He gave us a roof over our heads. He gave Phillip a job that has exceeded our expectations and dreams and imaginations, and He abundantly restored more than what was lost.
There are many, many other things which Jesus has done for us, which if written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. (The Apostle John gave that same testimony in John 21:25)
And the Bible says: “There is a way that seems right to man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14:12) For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (Romans 3:23) For the wages of sin is death [spiritual, eternal death], but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23) For this is how God loved the world: He gave His only Son [Jesus Christ], so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. He sent Jesus into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:16-17)
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved [from eternal death and the punishment for your sin]. (Romans 10:9)
“Whoever denies that Son does not have the Father, but the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.” (1 John 2:23) There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Jesus. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son, Jesus Christ.” (John 3:18)
With God's gift of salvation, He does not make a bad person good; God makes a spiritually dead person alive!
Beloved, Jesus loves you; this I know. He died in your stead, and that's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help me God!
