I was brought up to reverence the Bible. When I was eighteen I joined the church, and for twenty-three years I was a member in good standing.
During these years I often talked with the minister and was a close friend of several officers of the church. But I do not remember ever hearing the subject of personal conversion spoken of. Certainly I never was asked by anyone if I myself were a child of God.
Church progress and religious work, choir singing and finance, all these were talked about, but my relation to God, to Christ, to eternity, was never spoken of. It would almost seem as though many preachers have forgotten what they are there for, and give their whole time and energy to the mere framework of Christianity, neglecting the spiritual condition of their congregations.
One day I ate with a salesman I had done business with for years. Our conversation drifted into church matters. I remarked that "great progress has been made since I was young in the attractiveness of church services and hymns."
"Perhaps," he said, "but I question if the gospel of salvation is as plainly preached and the need of personal conversion insisted on as it used to be."
His statement astonished me. "Personal conversion" had certainly not been spoken of; I knew nothing about it. I was not even sure what he meant by "personal conversion."
When we met again three months later I was in real distress. I had been reading about the lives of some of the early Christians, and had found that they were all "personally" converted. I asked the salesman the plain question, "Are you a converted man?"
At once he replied, "Thank God, I am. I have been happy in the knowledge of God's salvation for more than twenty years."
Then he told me how he had seen his personal need of being born again, and how he learned that salvation was not won by doing good works, but by trusting in Christ the Savior.
This was all new to me, so I determined to go and hear a preacher who had the reputation of being plainspoken. He had even been known to ask some of his congregation if they were saved!
I shall never forget the upheaval in my mind when I heard that servant of Christ proclaim: "Salvation is of the Lord!" and, "It is all of grace, without price and free to all who believe."
A week later while I was reading John 3, verses 14 and 15, by faith I saw it, I believed it and I received God's salvation. Now I praise Him for showing me my own need of personal conversion and for His gift to me of eternal life.
Are you born again? Have you been personally converted? ARE YOU SAVED?