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Topic: START (02/25/16)
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TITLE: Own Your Mark. Get Set. Go. | Previous Challenge Entry
By Terrie Ellington
03/03/16 -
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So, when does salvation really begin? At the tender age of 10 years old, I found myself sitting on what use to be called the mourners bench. As I sat there listening to the preacher talk about God, I already knew what I was suppose to do. When he finished and the doors of the church were opened, I was to get up from the mourners bench and sit in one of the chairs at the front of the church if I believed in Jesus.
Of course I believed in Jesus. My mom had been bringing me to church and talking about this Jesus since I could remember. The preacher had been talking about this Jesus since I could remember, and I believed them both.
So when the time came, I got up from the mourners bench and sat in a chair at the front of the church. When the preacher asked me what I believed, I told him what I’d heard all my young life. “ I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins.”
That was that. I was now marked as a Christian.
For years that was all I knew. Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I believed what mama and the preacher taught me about Jesus and life was good. I prayed every night before going to bed and went to church every Sunday as I was taught. I tried to be a good person and my life was simple, happy and good. This Jesus that I’d been taught about was all right, just like the preacher use to say in his sermons. “Ain't He all right?”
He was. That is, until my sister was diagnosed with stage four cancer at the age of 36 years old. I prayed to this Jesus that mama and the preacher had taught me about and I truly believed that He could do anything and I believed that He could heal any disease. That’s what mama and the preacher said so without a doubt I believed Jesus would heal my sister.
He didn’t.
I can remember spending the night with her in the hospital, and the next day when I left to pick my children up from school I got the call.
“She’s gone.” My brother said with tears in his voice. I can remember sitting in my truck stock still, mouth agape in shock. The first conscious thought that came to my mind was, “God failed!”
I grieved more about God than I did my sister. This Jesus that mama and the preacher taught me about had failed and I couldn’t deal. I was so disillusioned that I stopped going to church for three months until finally I realized that I could live without my sister, but I couldn’t live without this Jesus. So I went looking for Him.
At 40 years old I took ownership of my mark as a Christianity. I tried reading the King James version of the Bible that I was raised using, but I couldn’t understand it. So I bought a book titled, ‘Living Close To God’ and learned that there are different versions of the Bible that are more understandable. I learned how to memorize scripture to get to know God. I took a year and a half discipleship course called ‘Masterlife’ and learned how to live in everyday life for God. I attended fours years at the school of ministry at my church.
This, I believed was the true start of my salvation, and somewhere along the line I ran across Psalm 139:16 TNIV - Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.
Then I understood that my sister’s death was only an untimely surprise for me; not God.
Once I took ownership of my Christian life instead of living only on what I learned from mama and the preacher, He became My Jesus.
It was only then that I could get set to live a Christian life. Every version of the Bible I read, every class I took, every book I read, every prayer I prayed set me up to live a life devoted to Christ. A life where I not only live for Him, but I also share Him with others.
Now I start each day of my life on my mark, set and ready to go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations.
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