My name is C.K. This is my story. I testify to you that Jesus is able to save from the very depths of sin. He even saved me at the age of 65 years! Yes, for over 65 years I was a lost, vile, hell-deserving sinner.
It is wonderful to be saved and know it! How do I know He saved me? God says so, and God cannot lie. He says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)). He said, “Thou SHALT be saved,” not MAYBE you will be saved. And that’s good enough for me. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ died for my sins. If I had been the only one on the earth, He would have died for me personally. I accepted Him as my own personal Saviour and as Lord of my life.
I know I am saved by the change He has made in my life. I liked to sin in my old life, but now when I do I don’t feel very good! And when I confess my sins, He is faithful and just to forgive them according to 1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9).
I had Christian parents. My father was converted the year before I was born. My mother used to pray for me. I thought at the time that she was praying for me because I used to leave home and she did not know where I was, but now I know she was praying for my salvation.
And I went to Sunday school when a child and to church occasionally. In my late teens I got in with the wrong crowd. I lived in the country, but I went to the wicked city quite often. I was the Prodigal Son in more ways than one. I spent many a dollar in the devil’s joints drinking. I used to work for a while to get money to go to the city to blow it on drink.
I know something of skid row. I remember sleeping in flophouses more than once. For years I was a servant of sin and Satan, but now my desire is to serve the One who at Calvary suffered, bled, endured the agony of the cross and died for me that I might go to heaven. What a Saviour!
The night before the fourth of July I was celebrating in Boston, going from one bar to another. About 1:30 in the morning of July 4 I had so much of the devil’s brew in me that I could not get home, so I went into a cheap hotel and slept it off. And I have not had an alcoholic drink since, nor have I wanted one, because I was saved the next day by the grace of God! Praise His name!
My daughter took me to a gospel preaching. As far as I can remember, it was the first time I ever heard the gospel of God’s saving grace. The preacher asked me if I was saved.
I said, “No.”
He asked, “Do you want to be saved?”
I said, “Yes!”
He showed me that I was a lost sinner by nature. I didn’t know that, although I certainly knew that I was a sinner by practice! “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)). He also showed me from the Bible that “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)).
Then I confessed to God that I was an awful sinner and asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart. And God answered that simple and sincere prayer! At that instant God, for Jesus’ sake, saved me, pardoned all my sins, blotted out all my terrible, vile sins and gave me eternal life.
Friend, are you saved? Do you know for sure that you would go to heaven if you dropped dead right now? If not, accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Saviour this very minute!
I thank God for saving me when He did. If I had died before I was 65 years of age, I would have gone to hell for sure! I pray you will be convicted of your lost condition and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ to save you. And then I will meet you in heaven one day!
Editor’s Note: C.K. lived to be 100 years old. He celebrated his one hundredth birthday - and the very next day he went to be with his Lord.