WHEN I GOT OUT OF THE GRAVEYARD

I made a profession of faith in theLordJesus when I was ten years old. But I lived in doubt of my salvation from that very day throughout the next twenty years. At times it was worse and at times it was better. My Christian uncle died unexpectedly when I was twelve and I heard my widowed aunt say she gathered their five children and two daughters-in law around the casket and asked God to not let the circle be broken but let them all be together again in Heaven one day. I remember thinking, "I wish I could have been in that circle...maybe then God would have to be sure that I was saved before I died." I went through my teen years and kept out of gross moral sin yet went through the wordly dating scene and used the same "little" bad words at times that those around me used.
At eighteen I married and when we had our baby in 1982 I really got concerned about the Lord coming back and my baby being raptured up and me left.
I am a very shy person and my shyness could have caused me to spend an eternity in Hell. Actually my sins and my rejection of Jesus as Saviour from those sins would have sent me to Hell but my shyness was the cause of my refusing to go to the altar many times.
I talked to our neighbor who is a preacher about it. I talked to my mother-in- law, my best friend, and another friend about it. No one seemed to be able to help me. I'd thinkIwas saved for a while, then I'd think I was lost. I didn't think I was losing my salvation. I knew my Bible better than that. I just couldn't figure out if I'd ever really been saved. It was an emotional roller coaster. During some altar calls at church I was scared, yet ashamed and embarrassed to make a move. By 1986 I was a Sunday School teacher of the seven to twelve year old girls. What would people think? When I was thirty years old (1991) our church began a meeting that lasted twelve weeks! Many were saved and many got their hearts right and began to be serious about serving the Lord and living lives that were pleasing to Him. The meeting began in September and went on through November. As the meeting progressed I came more and more under deep Holy Ghost conviction. In October, I cast myself on the Lord and His mercy. I trusted Him for my soul's salvation. I told Him I was sorry for all my sins and that I was casting myself on Him and trusting His everlasting arms. I was released from that heavy burden I had been carrying.
Later I realized that when I was ten I repented of my sins. I was sorry for them and wanted to be saved, but I never believed on Him. I never trusted that He would save me. I never accepted Him into my heart by faith. It was some time later that I began to pray, "Lord, since that night I haven't doubted. I need to know if I just got assurance that night or that is when I got saved." I had been pregnant and doctors feared I was losing the baby so I was traveling back and forth to my doctor forty miles away and I was praying and seeking God's face on those eighty mile round trips. God showed me the truth I previously wrote above: That I never trusted Him at ten. I knew in my heart it was the truth. I had asked Him a thousand times to save me but I had never up to that point in 1991 cast myself fully on Him and believed that He loved me with an everlasting love and died for me and would have died for only me if needed and that He would save an old sinner like me! But hallelujah! God opened my sin-blinded eyes to the truth of the gospel that had been put in me "from a child" by my godly momma.
I did miscarry the baby and he/she went to dwell with the Father. Thank God, as David lamented, that though the baby was not to come to me I will one day go to be with the baby! At this time, I was (and still am) teacher of the young ladies (ages 18 to around 35) Sunday School class. I went right in the next Sunday and told them the whole story. They were thrilled for me. My cousin had died and our family is a bit estranged so I left Sunday School and went to the funeral home to view the body and sign the book while no one was there. I rushed back to church and lo, and behold , my pastor was standing on the front porch. I knew God was in that. I marched my shy self right up to him and quickly and concisely told him. He was so happy. He knew I had been troubled about it. I asked him if he would open the doors of the church ( for membership) that morning so I could join and be properly baptized. He did and I did. And that is the story of how I got out of the graveyard!
Are you out of the graveyard? Or are you still dead in trespasses and sins?

You must realize you are a sinner. "There is none righteous,no , not one." Romans 3:10 You will never be saved until you acknowledge you are a sinner. "For the wages of sin is death." Romans 6:23 God loves you and gave His only Son , Jesus, as your substitute. He died in your place. "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins , should live unto righteousness:by whose stripes ye were healed." I Peter 2:24 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn from your sin and turn to Him. Are you under conviction? Do you feel the heavy load of guilt? You can be out from under that load. If you refuse God's free gift of salvation you will die in your sins and suffer eternally in the fire of Hell. You don't have to. Trust Him today. Accept Him as Lord (Master) and Saviour. He is a wonderful Friend. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Come on, get out of the graveyard and begin to really live!!