When I was growing up, we never heard the Bible read in our home. However, my grandmother loved the Lord Jesus, and I know she was praying for me and longing that I would come to Jesus and be saved from my sins. In fact, she loved me so much that she put her life in my hands!
Grandma knew me well. She knew that in all my seventeen years I’d never loved anything like I loved my Harley-Davidson motorcycle. And she knew I would jump at any excuse to show it off or take it for a ride, so she invited me to take her to a gospel meeting on my Harley.
Off we went - me with my goggles and aviator’s helmet and my 65year-old grandma sitting behind me with her arms tightly around my waist, holding on for dear life!
We arrived safely, and I sat with my grandma for the meeting. I remember the preacher telling us that we are all on a journey, and it’s not long before each person comes to the dividing of the ways and has to make a decision. I could choose the wide gate that anyone can easily pass through. It opens onto a smooth road, but that road leads down, down to destruction. The other choice is a gate so narrow that no one can pass through it while still carrying his load of sins. But right beside that narrow gate stands a cross. On that cross the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Son of God, has died for each one of us. I could unload my sins right there if I would bow down before Jesus, confessing that I am a sinner and need His forgiveness. The message gave me something to think about.
Not long after, a friend of mine at school asked me if we could go together on my Harley to a revival meeting. Of course I said, “Yes!”
What I heard at that revival meeting put a real scare into me. The speaker told us we are all at the eleventh hour, and not much time is left for us to come to Christ. God is going to make certain that every knee, either here on earth or in eternity, will bow to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. “It is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God” (Romans 14:11).
I knew I had not done that yet. But God used those two messages to turn my thoughts to the Lord Jesus and to make me see my need of Him. It wasn’t long after that I accepted Him as my Lord and Saviour and was born into the family of God. It was just like Romans 15:13 said it would be: “The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” I’ve certainly never regretted that decision to trust my life fully to the Lord Jesus Christ and His saving power.
“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9).
ML-09/15/2002