I was raised in a mainline Christian church, but I was in my twenties before someone shared with me that being a Christian was more than a religious practice and church was more than a wholesome place to be on a Sunday morning. I don’t recall ever hearing at my church that I could know Jesus, that He wanted to be my Lord and Savior, that He would come and live in my heart if I only asked Him to. I don’t remember anyone telling me as I was growing up that I needed to be born again. I didn’t know I was lost until I was found. Thank God for the young couple who entered my life and quietly began to share the person of Jesus Christ with me. Thank God for saving my mother and then allowing her to pray me into the Kingdom.
I suppose it isn’t surprising, given my love for books, that God chose the printed word to reveal Himself to me. It began when I was given a copy of the Living Bible. Over the following months, as I read the New Testament, I also read The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, Woman to Woman by Eugenia Price, and Prison to Praise by Merlin R. Carothers. Finally, on Valentine’s Day 1976 at approximately 6:00 a.m., I gave my heart to Jesus.
If I could rewrite my life, I would script myself a walk of complete obedience to my Lord from start to finish. However, the truth is, I let the cares and concerns of this world creep in during the 1980s. I allowed the enemy of my soul to strip away my effectiveness for the Kingdom. I faltered and fell on my face plenty. I was a poor witness of the Truth. I compromised when I should have stood strong. I made more mistakes than I care to recall, and those mistakes didn’t just hurt me. (They never do.)
Oh, but God is good and He is faithful, even when we’re faithless!
He never took His hand off of me. He never stopped wooing me and reminding me that I was His. He sent people and circumstances into my life and drew me back to the place where I belonged, into a walk of obedience and faith. And I am here to tell you that He does turn all things to good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. His promises are true!
Jesus has had much to teach me, one of his more strong-willed children, over the past 50+ years that I’ve been a believer, and there is plenty more to be learned before He takes me home. But what an incredible journey of discovery and growth it’s been — and is yet to be — since I submitted to His Lordship. It’s amazing what He can do with hurting, broken lives that are yielded to Him, how He can turn them into something beautiful. He did it for me. He’ll do it for you.
Being a Christian isn’t about religion. It’s about a relationship with the One who made us. And I’m so thankful to be His.
What I Believe
- I believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- I believe that Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary and is true God and true man.
- I believe that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, that all who receive Christ by repentance and faith are born again of the Spirit and become children of God.
- I believe that the Bible — all the canonical books of the Old and New Testament — is the revealed Word of God as inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it is the supreme and final authority in faith and life.
John 1:1–5, 10-14
Romans 3:22
Romans 10:9–10
Ephesians 1:7
Galatians 3:24
2 Timothy 3:16
Hebrews 4:12
Illustrating My Faith
From the very beginning of my Christian walk, I have made it my practice to write in the margins of my Bible, to underline and highlight, to interact with the word of God in a personal way.
But it wasn’t until late 2015 that I heard about creative Bible journaling. I don’t know when this practice began spreading like wildfire. Judging by all of the YouTube videos and Facebook groups, I’m guessing it was about two years before I discovered it myself. All I can say is that this way of interacting with Scripture took hold of my heart and imagination immediately. While I don’t art journal often, I find it a joy whenever I do.
