There is nothing like experience to mold a person into who they are. We can learn from
books and hopefully we can learn from others. Usually unless we use what we learn and make
it a practical experience of our own, we lose what we learn, and definitely have no conviction
to abide by it.
I knew about the Lord Jesus because my Aunt Margie was a confessing Christian. I heard
the gospel from Phil and Cindy who started a youth club in my town. I saw something clean
and pure in my high school friend Ardis who lived a Christian life. I was encouraged by them
all to call upon the Lord Jesus. It wasn't until many years later when I was pressed by great
despair that I thought to call upon Him. If He did not answer, I'm sure I would be in hell. I
would not be alive today if Jesus did not answer. Thank God He did. So from this experience
alone I know without a doubt that Jesus lives and His word is true. I know from His contact
with me that He is God, the great Redeemer who has the power to reclaim a sin-shackled life.
He has the power to clean and mend a filthy, broken life and make it pure and brand new. He
even has the power to move on my behalf and help me through physical difficulties. For this I
am forever grateful, and I still am full of the joy of my salvation.
I have been a Christian for 27 years now. I marvel at all the promises from the Bible that
God has fulfilled in my life. God’s words are wonderful, and as I yield myself to His words, I
find that all the promises in the Bible are yea and amen. I found that Jesus saved me so that I
can live with Him now in this world. Though I cannot see Him, I know without a doubt that He is with me. And though I cannot hear His voice with my ears, I can hear Him with my heart
and my senses, and I know that He hears me when I pray.
I do not write to brag about what I have with God, but I write to encourage you that you
may walk with Christ and have an experience with Him yourself.
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is when Jesus met the woman at the well in John 4.
She went back to town to say, “Could this [Jesus] be the Christ?” And they went out to hear
Jesus for themselves. Afterward, they said, “Now we believe, not because of what the woman
said, but we believe because we have heard Him ourselves.” You must know Jesus Christ for
yourself, and when I say know, I mean to know Him as your friend, your Father, and your life.
You must know Him not from afar as an audience or a spectator, but you must know Him in
such a way that He knows you and delights in you. May you experience such in your life and
know that you know Him who redeems. The Bible says, “If any man love God, the same is
known of Him” (1 Corinthians 8:3).
that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”
--James 1:12
so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
--Romans 5:13