“The den.” That’s what my dad called his private office in our California home, and it was there one evening in March of 1973, at the age of four, that I made the biggest decision of my life. You may wonder, “What kind of a decision could a four-year-old possibly make that could be so significant?” I’m happy to tell you: It was then I asked Jesus to be my Savior.
Quite frankly, I don’t remember a whole lot about my life up until that point. I was born in upstate New York, but by the time I was three our family had moved to California on account of my dad’s job. I had one brother that was a year older than me and a sister that was a year younger than me. I remember playing in our pool out back, having a pet turtle, watching Winnie the Pooh on my Film Strip Viewer, and playing “store” with my siblings. Life was good.
Every night my dad would come home and take a dip in the pool before eating dinner, but after dinner he did something else. He gathered the family together in our living room and taught us the Bible. I loved hearing about Noah and the Ark, David and Goliath, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, and other stories. My dad assured us that these were not made up stories but were real, and God wrote them down for our good that we might know and love him.
But of all the stories my dad shared, the one that gripped my heart like no other was the story of Jesus dying on the cross. He was crucified--not because he had done anything wrong, but because I and everyone else had done bad things and deserved to be punished. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23), and “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23)--not just physical death but spiritual death, that is, eternal separation from God in the lake of fire.
I thought of the times that I had disobeyed my parents or had been mean to my brother or sister. I felt guilty and knew that I deserved to be punished, not only by my parents, but also by God. But the good news my dad shared with us that evening is that “God demonstrated his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). Three days later Jesus rose from the dead, proving that he really was the all-powerful Son of God (Rom 1:4). Dad told us that though we had sinned against God, if we would trust Jesus to save us, he would.
Dad prayed, and our time of family devotions was over--but I couldn’t get the lesson off my mind. So a short while later I asked Dad what I needed to do to make sure that I was forgiven and would go to heaven. It was then that Dad took me into his den and reviewed the gospel with me once again. He asked me if I wanted to pray to ask Jesus to be my Savior. I said yes, so we both got down on our knees. I prayed, then Dad prayed. After we were done, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. We walked out of the room and I told my mom what I had just done. She recorded the incident in my baby book.
The following year I was baptized at the age of five as a public profession of my faith. Baptism is an act of obedience by which we proclaim to others that we have trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation. Baptism is not a good work by which we get into heaven. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph 2:8-9).
For the next five years or so, I continued to grow in my faith, learning more of God’s Word from my parents, my pastor, and my Sunday School teachers. To my knowledge I never once questioned my salvation. When I was ten years old, however, I came to a crisis of faith. We were living in Chicago at the time, and news broke out about the arrest of John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer who raped and murdered thirty-three men. My parents shielded us children from these types of news stories, but everyone was talking about this case, and somehow I heard of it.
I was mortified. I would lie in bed at night scared to death, thinking that Gacy would escape from prison and that somehow I would become his next victim. I thought about death. What if something happened to me? Would I really go to heaven? For weeks I would lie on the top bunk of my bed at night with hot tears of fear streaking down both sides of my head as I lay on my back, praying to God to save me again and again. It was during this time that I was really forced to consider the basis of my salvation. I reviewed all the verses that I shared above and that I had known since childhood. Somewhere along the way (I’m not sure exactly when), the Spirit of God bore witness with my spirit that I was truly a child of God (Rom 8:16).
Since that time, the Spirit of God has continued to reveal to me through his Word just how great my salvation is. I used to think that I had a boring testimony because I had not done anything “really bad” before coming to Christ. But now I see that God not only saved me at an early age, but by doing so he also spared me from much sin and many wasted years. God shows his grace not only by pardoningus, but also by protecting and preserving us, and for that I’m grateful.
This is not to suggest that the Christian life is easy. I still struggle with sin, rejection, the death of loved ones, health issues, financial burdens, and a whole lot else. Yet in all these things I am more than a conqueror through Christ who loves me (Rom 8:37). I “know that for those who love God all things work together for good” (Rom 8:28). I know that when I die, I will go to heaven, for Scripture assures us that to “be away from the body” is to be “at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him” (2 Cor 5:9-10).
Do you have this assurance? If not, I urge you to repent and trust in Christ for salvation today. Eternity hangs in the balance. “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36). “Or He says, ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2).
