You Don't Work For A Gift

This is my personal testimony. I would like to tell you about a time when nothing else mattered but fame, fortune, and success. As a young man (teen years 13 - 19 ) I thought of nothing else than to be a professional musician in a progressive rock band. This was not only my goal, but my dream. I studied hard to be the best at playing guitar. I was in a few cover bands and performed at some large halls in Chicago, IL. As a young man I felt that nothing could stop me. Of course, alcohol, and drugs entered the picture during that time (1974 -1979). Disappointed with high school, I continued working in a band and doing odd jobs to make some cash. Everything seemed more and more difficult to accomplish as time went on.

I was raised as a Catholic, but the older I became the less I believed in God. I was taught the theory of evolution in school. In earth science class I was told as a FACT not THEORY that the earth was millions of years old. When evolution was presented as a fact and not theory, it made all of my Catholic teaching meaningless, almost a fairy tail if you will. So I became an atheist.

Around the springtime of my twentieth birthday, two men came to visit me at my apartment. I didn't know either of them and I would have sent them away, accept one of them said he met my brother, and that he gave him my address. This somewhat intrigued me so I let him talk. After some small talk, he asked me the question, " If you were to die today would you go to Heaven or Hell ?". I had to think about it for a minute before I answered. I thought about the beer in the fridge, the bong on the counter, the cigarettes in my pocket, and a number of things I've done that I wasn't proud of. Even though I was an atheist, I still wanted to be honest with these guys, so I said, " I'll probably go to Hell." Thinking that was the end of our conversation, he asked me, " do you want to go to hell ?",
I said, " no". And then he asked me a pivotal question that changed everything ,
"If I could show you one verse in the Bible that you could know today that you can go to Heaven when you die, would you be interested ?" I answered ," Yes". He showed me a verse that has changed my life forever, and when he read it , it seemed to have jumped off the page at me ," THESE THINGS HAVE I WRITTEN UNTO YOU THAT BELIEVE ON THE NAME OF THE OF THE SON OF GOD; THAT YE MAY KNOW THAT YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE, AND THAT YE MAY BELIEVE ON THE NAME OF THE SON OF GOD "1John 5:13. After he read that verse he told me the word " know " was in the present tense not future, and then he asked me if I wanted to pray to God and ask him to save my soul. I replied "yes".

In that prayer I asked Jesus to forgive me for my sins, and to live in my heart. I was at that point washed of all of my sins in the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ. After recognising that something spiritual was done here, and the supernatural events that took place in the early months of my salvation, I realized that I was lied to by my high school teachers. But, what really ticked me off, and please don't take offence to what I'm about to say, is I was lied to by the Catholic Church.The Scriptures clearly teach " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved..."Acts16:31. There is NO sacraments to keep, NO prayer beads,
NO praying to Mary, (or any other saints for that matter), NO purgatory, NO being saved by baptism, NO statues or images to worship, and NO Pope mentioned in the Holy Scriptures at all.

As a youngster I did learn some wonderful things in the Catholic Church. I was told that Jesus was the son of God, that God is a trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), and that there is a Heaven and a Hell. I was also taught that it was God's will to care for the needy. These are things that are taught in the Holy Bible. So there is some good teachings, however these teachings fall short of the Biblical doctrine of salvation. Romans chapter 3 and verse 12 says " there is none that doeth good, no, not one ". This teaches us that mankind at it's best is not good enough. This includes all religions. The only religion that God ever endorsed in the Bible was Judaism, and that was before the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christianity is not a religion, but a way of life. Religion is man's way to Heaven to reach God through man's own efforts or works. Christianity is God reaching down to man through His finished work on the cross. Simply believing, and trusting in your heart in the finished work of Jesus Christ is what eternal life is all about. The moment I asked Jesus to save my soul from hell I became born again. This simply means that the Holy Spirit enters your soul and makes your spirit alive forever more. That's all there is to it. It is the gift of God and from God, not a religion. You don't work for a gift.

" For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. " Ephesians 2:8