It was the third weekend in October 1972 that I gave my life to Christ on a Saturday, and, the next day on a Sunday, in a church about five hours from my hometown, a former money counterfeiter who had been apprehended and busted for it and then saved and then unexplainedly set free by a baffled judge ("I don't know why I am letting you go free minus any sentence") laid his hands on me in a church service, and, as I shook like a leaf in a blowing wind, I received a fullness of the Spirit and began exercising a prayer language not native to my own English language.
One person in my hometown said to me, "You were kind of far out to begin with, so now you're a Jesus freak eh?" I knew he didn't understand at all what had transpired. It wasn't at all about becoming a Jesus freak. I told many surprised people, family, and friends that if I was a Christian for three years, I would be one for the rest of my life. That was fifty years ago this morning, on the third weekend in October in 1972.
"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen." (Jude 1:24-25)
Obviously, none of us has walked a perfect walk since coming to know God. And we've been through many trial small and great. Yet I can testify with confidence, as you can, if God apprehended you and saved you, He can keep you. Be assured of it! Bless His mighty and capable name. Who would have ever thought in our sin, guilt, ungodliness, and in my case, outright sin sickness and bleak despair over not knowing the meaning of life, we would end up being called son and daughters of the Most High and Holy God. I am more profoundly and immeasurably astonished over Jesus Christ of Nazareth this morning than when I began. God His Father doesn't just give us salvation through Christ, but He gives us ABUNDANT SALVATION! Fifty years later it seems like an impossible dream - it can't be this good. But IT IS TRUE from A to Z. _________________ David Winter
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