I was raised on a farm near Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Sunday School, memory verses, and bedtime prayers were an important part of my early years. I remember receiving a reward plaque which said "I will come again and receive you." This often caught my eye, as Mother had hung it over the piano, and I wondered: Would it be possible for me to be in heaven?
Although I was brought up to be moral, upright and careful with my speech, I sometimes grew careless. Once as I was showing cattle at the county fair a neighbor heard me say something that startled him as I was watering the calves. He exclaimed: "I thought the Peck boys didn't swear!"
I realized that my moral upbringing had not been enough to save me from sinning. After evening chores, when no one was looking I would pick up the Bible from the living room library table. The commandments, "Thou shalt," and "Thou shalt not," convinced me that I was indeed a wicked sinner in the sight of the Lord. I became discouraged and began to think that God hated me and was angry because of my sins. As these thoughts overwhelmed my soul, I fell to my knees and cried to God to forgive me for my sins.
Two evangelists stopped by the farm and invited us to gospel meetings at a neighbor's house. I went out of curiosity. The third night the preacher said, "Unless you know Christ as your personal Savior, you are far off from heaven tonight!"
Driving home, I felt I was a stranger to God and without hope, but at home I read a little booklet called, "God's Way of Salvation." It explained 1 John 4:1010Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10), "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." There I understood that, instead of God hating me, He really loved me and had given His Son to die for my sins upon the cross at Calvary. There I rested my sin-burdened soul and found peace with God and became sure of heaven. Why don't you, too, trust Him for eternity?