My Salvation Testimony

It was quiet January night, the Hartsells, the family I was living with at the time, had gone out for the night, so I had the house to myself. After a long day at work, all I wanted to do was vegg out in front of the TV. I turned the TV on and started flipping through the channels.

One thing I was glad of since I was living with another family, especially one with four little boys, is that I had my own room. It wasn’t very big, just a little 7x14 ft addition tacked on to the garage. The walls were white and a patriotic border hung on the wall just under the ceiling. A huge antique desk/bookcase combo covered the west wall. There were two doors that led into my room, one on the north wall, which opened into the garage, which I never used, and one on the east wall that opened into the living dining room area. My day bed was on the north wall positioned between the desk and the garage door. It faced my TV which was under my lone widow. The window was almost parallel to my bed and took up three quarters of the south wall. On this particular evening it was letting in just enough of the late afternoon sun that I didn’t need to turn on the light.

While I was flipping through the channels, I paused on TBN, they were doing a segment on Kirk Cameron and he was going to give his Testimony of Salvation. Now, whenever I hear of a celebrity “getting saved” I’m always skeptical that they are truly saved or if they are making a PR statement. I was curious I wanted to see what he had to say. Little did I know that my curiosity would lead to a life changing revelation!

You see, I was raised in a Christian home, my dad was a missionary. I had been exposed to Bible stories, the concepts of sin, and the need of a savior at an early age. When I was five, I remember the church service going a little late. I asked my mom what was happening, she told me someone was getting saved. I misunderstood and thought she said mommy was getting saved and started to cry. When I realized that wasn’t what she said, I was embarrassed to admit that I had misunderstood her. So when she asked why I was crying, I told her I wanted to be saved… I remember praying a prayer but it really didn’t mean anything to me. When I was in my teens this started to bother me and I spoke to my mom about it. She prayed with me again, but I knew deep down inside nothing had changed.

I was so enthralled with Kirk Cameron’s testimony, actually before it was over he was preaching a sermon on how to lead someone to Christ, I never noticed how dark it was getting, the only light in my room was the flicker of the TV screen. The only sound in the room was Kirk’s voice and the still small voice speaking to my heart saying, “You’ve never done that. You’ve never really admitted that you are a sinner!” “But” my mind argued back “what will everybody say? I’m a missionary’s kid, I sing in the choir, I’m signed up for that soul winning class that starts on Saturday.” And the still small voice whispered back “Would you die and go to hell over what others think about you?” I barely noticed that the presentation was coming to an end, I was so involved in my own thoughts. As Kirk stared issuing an invitation, I switched the TV off and sank to my knees beside my bed and cried out to God that I was a sinner and in need of salvation. I remember the relief I felt knowing that I didn’t have to worry anymore about where I would go when I died.

I went out that night, to put in a job application, and for the first time in my life did not need any back ground noise to cover up my thoughts; I was finally at peace!