The Peace of a Real Salvation

I was raised in a Christian home. My father has been a pastor since I was five years old. At that time I had seen a lot of people get saved and all I knew about it was that
everyone ought to get saved, people getting saved made my mom and dad real happy, and when people got saved they went to the front of the auditorium, prayed, and then they were saved!

I thought, "Hey! I can do that!" So I did. I went forward, prayed the prayer everyone prayed when they got saved, and then excitedly told my parents that "I got saved!" My mom and dad gave me a funny look and said, "oh, that's nice." and dropped it. That was very wise of them. They never told me, "Now you're saved!"

Years later, we went to a showing at a church nearby of some movies about the end times. The Bible tells us that Jesus is coming back, and that He will come like a thief. This knowledge convicted me because I knew that if I did not prepare for His coming, I would be left alone. This thought really gripped my imagination. I couldn't sleep. I knew some new things now.

1. If I had to face God right then, He wouldn't let me into Heaven. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:23 "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone..." Rev. 21:8


2. When He came to get the saved, He wouldn't get me. "Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left." Matt. 24:40

This is not a pleasant prospect, but the Bible is very clear on this matter. Sin ends up in a place of judgment, and we are in our sins without Christ.

I had a problem, though. So much of the Bible is about God's wonderful provision for this need we all have, and I FORGOT ALL ABOUT IT! I spent night after night dreading the morning in case I was going to wake up to an empty house. I would check the beds every night, sometimes several times.

Then after one night of desperate bed-checking, I lay in my bed pondering my misery and the Lord began to speak to my heart. The still small voice of God's Spirit asked me if I thought God wanted me to spend my life in this kind of despair. I knew that He didn't. Then it hit me like a load of bricks. "What! That's what Jesus came for!" Right then, I knew I had to get saved right away, and I knew the best thing of all:

• "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. " II Pet. 3:9


• "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" Rom. 6:23


• "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." II Cor. 5:21


• John 3:16 says it better than I ever could, "For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

I jumped out of bed and ran to my parents bedroom. They did not greet me enthusiastically this time either! In fact they were downright groggy and confused. I was not. I knew that I had to get saved before another moment passed. So I prayed and asked God to save me from my sins and from hell. I accepted His wonderful gift of eternal life. The relief and peace was amazing. The first thing I thought was, "Finally! I can sleep!" How wonderful to be able to rest in peace in this life! "I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, oh Lord, only makest me dwell in safety."

Reader, God loves you so much that gave His own blood to pay for your salvation. If you are trying to get it by being a good person, please remember, it's a gift! Your sins will keep you from ever being good enough to have peace with God. You have to get rid of them! Jesus is how. When He died on the cross, His blood paid the price to remove all our sin.

"In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgivness of sin." Col. 1:14

God says that if you turn from those sins and believe on Christ, you will be saved.

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Rom. 10:13

Sarah Joy
Sarah Joy's Corner

Broken to Beautiful

When I was really little,
About the age of three or four,
I would get really scared,
When I'd hear a slamming door.
Mom and Dad would yell a lot,
Us kids never understood,
We knew that there were problems,
And we'd have fixed them if we could.

They never got along you see,
It's God's love that they did lack,
So when they did split up,
Dad said I won't be back.

My mom worked with a Christian,
Who asked her to come to church,
My mom said I'll try it,
Since nothing else has worked.

When my mom went that day,
And she fully realized,
That she was a rotten sinner,
She let that old man die.

Now that she was saved,
She began to really pray,
That God would bring her husband home,
For good and there to stay.

One day when my Daddy called,
About a few weeks later,
He said that he was on his way,
To file a divorcement paper.

Mom then went into her room,
To pray to God in Heaven,
About what Daddy said,
And about the situation.

The next thing that we knew,
Dad was walking through the door,
He said that he was home,
They needed to talk some more.

He said I don't love you,
I'm just here for the kids,
We'll put a month on trial,
We'll try this out again.

She'd pray to God every day,
That He would let this work,
Please God save my husband,
And let him get in church.

After weeks of asking,
Daddy finally agreed,
He said that he would go,
So his wife would no more plead.

Daddy had gone in the garage,
To get alone and think,
He'd knew he'd been convicted,
His soul was tired and weak.

So there that day my dad got saved,
His life forever changed,
Then he told his wife,
My life is rearranged.

It's been thirteen years since all this happened,
All of us kids are saved,
My parents are still married,
And dad preaches the Word today.

So next time you say it's impossible,
I've got a different story,
God put our family back together,
I give Him the praise and glory.

Trusting God,
Kristina

A Turn for the Miraculous

I did not grow up in a Christian home. My family never even attended a church service all my years of growing up. I think I went to one wedding that was held in a church but I'm not even sure about that. When I was a little girl I was riding down the road with my dad and I remember looking out the window and asking my dad if there was a God. He told me he thought there was but that was all he told me. It wasn't util I moved to Georgia that I even heard the name of Jesus. I'm not sure if you have ever met or heard of anyone that had gone 24 years of their life without hearing the name of Jesus...but you have heard of someone now.

I had given birth to my third child and a friend of mine's pastor made a visit to our apartment one day to talk to me. All he told me was that Jesus died for me and that He was how I would get to Heaven. After talking with me for a few minutes he asked me if I wanted to go to Heaven. Well....what person doesn't want to? So he told me to repeat a prayer after him (which I did) and after doing so he pronounced me as going to Heaven. I lived for four years thinking I was going to Heaven. We went to church SOMETIMES. But only when we felt like it. There was no desire to go nor was there any change that took place in my life.

In June of 1994 my world was falling apart. I took my son to one of his baseball games with my girls and had asked my husband if he wanted to go. He said he didn't because he was tired and needed some sleep. After getting to the baseball game I felt this prompting to go back home for something. I don't remember now what that "thing" was that I was to go home for but I knew once I got there why I needed to go. I walked into our bedroom to find my husband and his things gone and a note on our bed. He had left me and the kids and said he would contact me later. That was it!

No explanation or anything. I was devastated!

I worked at a bowling center in the snack bar and there was a lady that worked in the office that was a Christian. She was always witnessing to the employees there about the Lord. She would take every opportunity to talk to me about the Lord. Now remember, I thought I was already saved. I didn't know anything else but that. So when she would tell me that I needed the Lord I would tell her that I "tried" Him and He didn't do anything to help me keep my husband. So she would continue to talk to me every chance she got...always telling me I needed the Lord in my life.

She was very patient with me and very loving. To this day I call her my "persistent pest". I thank God for her to this day!!! Every week at least once a week she would invite me to come to church with her. Finally one day (about two weeks after my husband had left) I decided to go.

My in-laws had neighbors that went to the same church that my "persistent pest" went to. So I asked my sister-in-law to go with me and she said she would. That next Sunday my kids, my sister-in-law and I went to church. From the moment I walked through those doors of that church I felt loved. I also felt God's presence (although at that time I didn't know that was what it was I was feeling). I sat through the service under conviction the entire service. At the altar call another lady that worked at the bowling center I worked at came and asked me to go to the altar with her. All she did was pray with me. While she was praying with and for me I was praying and asking God to forgive me for my sins!!

Now...I didn't specifically ask God to come into my heart and save me. At that point in my life I still thought I had gotten saved four years prior. But what a blessing when even though our mouth doesn't know what to say and what to ask for that our heart knows what we need and what to cry out for. All I know is that when I got up from that altar that a peace came over me like I had never had before. I knew in my heart that no matter what happened from that point on (whether my husband came back home or not) that my kids and I were going to be okay.

From that day forward I was a changed individual. It wasn't long after that day (June 26, 1994...I only know that is the day from a daily journal I was keeping at the time) that I learned to begin claiming God's promises. I claimed Psalm 27:14 ("Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.") as God's promise to me. I would request prayer for my husband in church and in Sunday School. Approximately two weeks later I got a phone call. My husband told me that he was on his way to see a divorce lawyer...that he was filing for divorce. I was hurt and upset (as any woman would be) but I still had that peace that God would take care of me. Two hours later he showed up at the house and told me he was going to move back home and give our marriage three months and that if nothing changed then he was gone and gone for good. I told him that was fair. He told me he didn't love me like a husband should love his wife but that he was only home for the kids.

I continued to take the kids and go to church faithfully. I would ask him to go each time we'd go and he would say no. Finally one Saturday he was sitting in our garage having his personal moment like he would do to get away from me and the kids....and the Lord began to deal with his heart and on that day in our garage he gave his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. He had gone to church as a bus kid when he was a teen and knew how to be saved. He made a profession of faith as a teen that wasn't real. This time in our garage it was real. He truly repented. That is the day our marriage and our home took a turn for the miraculous!!!

My husband is now a missionary with Highways & Hedges Christian Ministries to the prisons and I am a missionary's wife. Ronnie and Kristina got saved not too long after my husband did and Michelle made a profession of faith that same week but realized in August of 2001 that she didn't have salvation and she gave her heart to Christ. Now we all serve the Lord in our church and on a daily basis as best we can with the Lord's help. I sit here before you today as a miracle and can speak of the miracle that God can repair a home and will as long as all involved let Him!!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY GREAT THINGS HE HATH DONE!!!!!

From the Church of Rome to the Family of God

I was raised in the Roman Catholic church in an all catholic town in Northern Maine. My father was an alcoholic and my mother a devout catholic. I was also a devout catholic and was even taught catechism in the CCD program. I married my high school sweetheart in 1974 and moved to the Northern Virginia area.

After six years of a failed marriage, knowing I could not get divorced (remember, this was the 70's and divorce was still frowned on by the catholic church), I decided that suicide was the only answer. I was "in love" with someone else who did not even know that I existed and life seemed too much to bear!

My best friend from Maine came to visit Virginia during her vacation. She had become this "born again" Christian and I had warned her not to "preach to me." However, the Lord had quite different plans for me. During her visit, we discussed the "end times." I had a great interest in Nostradamus and the future. I was so afraid to go through the horrible times that these so-called prophets had written about. I remember thinking that there just HAD to be a way out.

The Holy Spirit had spoken to my friend's heart and compelled her to bring along with her a tape of Hal Lindsey discussing the end times. He is the author of "The Late Great Planet Earth." Ironically, my husband had been reading that book lent to him by a man he worked with. I, of course, did not read it. I listened to Hal Lindsey discussing what Christ had to say about the end times in the Scriptures.

He also spoke about this plan of salvation! He spoke of how I could not work my way to heaven as written in Ephesians 2:8-9. He said that there was no one on this earth that was not a sinner as written in Romans 3:23. He said that because of my sin, I would have to pay the penalty, which is going to hell! WHAT? Go to hell? I had always been taught that if I did not die in mortal sin, I would go to purgatory until enough prayers and indulgences had been made on my behalf, then I would be released to heaven. Hal Lindsey's response to this was if I could get to heaven because of my good works on earth or because someone prayed me out of purgatory, then WHY in the world would God send Jesus to die for our sins? This meant that Jesus' death on the cross was not enough!? What a cruel and horrible thing for God the Father to do to His only Son!

All of this sounded so foreign to me. I had never heard such a thing in my entire life! I taught catechism, for crying out loud. Certainly I would have heard something from my priest or in my catechism book. Not once had I ever imagined that the things I was taught were according to a church's traditions and doctrines rather than what the Bible, the Word of God, taught.

I remember thinking to myself that I could honestly stand before God and tell Him that He had to let me into heaven because I had never heard about this plan of salvation as a catholic. It was not in any of my catechism books. I was telling the truth here. This was never something that had been taught to me ... not in church nor by my parents. Certainly God would understand this and let me into heaven! At the very moment this thought entered my mind, Hal Lindsey said "And you can't say that you never heard the plan of salvation because I just told you so!!

My friend, I can't begin to tell you what this did to me. I was NOW accountable before God for being a sinner and I was on my way to hell. It was at that time I knew that I was a goner and that I could not escape so great salvation.

I was born again by the Grace of God at noon on April 1st, 1980. Praise God for His unending mercy! Not only was I saved from eternal damnation but the Lord healed my broken marriage within just a few months!

I thank God that He used my dearest childhood friend as an instrument for my salvation. Now we are not only friends but sisters in Christ. This has been a source of great comfort and blessing to me throughout the years.


Saved by Grace,

Kate Plourde

Share Your Testimony!

Well, my wife and I have just posted out testimony here at The Baptist Muse over the past week or so and we would like to extend an open invitation to everyone else to do the same. If you are saved...then we want to hear about it. Let us know when you got saved and how the Lord has been working in your life. You don't have to be a great writer. Just be saved and we want to hear about it. Just email your testimony to me or submit on the contact page and I will feature it as an article right here on the Blog page!

So what are you waiting for? Let's get the word out about what God has done in your life!

About the Founder of The Baptist Muse

I was raised in Amboy, IL, a small rural community in the northern part of the state. I was raised by my father as a single child until I was thirteen years old. It was during that time, that I received Christ as a young child at vacation Bible school at the First Baptist Church in Amboy, IL.

I lived with my father only until I was thirteen because he was a very violent man. He was a very hard drinker and often succumbed to very violent fits of anger. He was abusive both mentally and physically. My childhood was anything but easy.

Due to these difficult circumstances in my home, it was at that time that my Aunt and Uncle adopted me into their family. When that transaction took place, I gained two brothers and one sister. I also later found out that my mother remarried and had two daughters who I have yet to meet.

From the time I was in the eighth grade until the time that I graduated high school, I had the privilege of attending small private schools. During my freshman and sophomore years of High School, I attended the Young Men’s Leadership Academy in Letts, IA. This was a military styled Christian school with much emphasis on leadership, responsibility, and learning various vocations. During my Junior and Senior years of high school, I attended the Amboy Baptist Academy. It was at this school where I was trained in what is considered to be a classical education. I was taught linguistics (Spanish both years, Latin both years, and French one year), logic, rhetoric, formal debate, physics, algebra, and grammar.

After high school, I attended Commonwealth Baptist College in Lexington, KY. It was there that I received my Bachelor’s degree in General Studies. My areas of focus included pastoral leadership and missions. I was able to graduate without taking on any student loans by working a full time job during my college years.

After college, I joined the United States Army. I entered the United States Army in February of 2007. When I raised my right hand and took the oath of enlistment to protect the Constitution from all enemies, I did so for three reasons.

First, I joined the Army to honor the service of my cousin who valiantly served for six years in the United States Army and received a purple heart and other medals for actions that took place at the Battle of Fallujah, Iraq.

Second, I joined to reclaim my family name. My father received a dishonorable discharge after serving for approximately twelve weeks in the United States Navy. The dishonor that he brought upon our family name will stop at my generation.

Third, and most importantly, I joined because I genuinely wanted to serve and defend my nation and my loved ones. Often I felt as if patriotism was a faddish movement in our nation. People would wear patriotic hats or shirts. People would stand up at the playing of the national anthem. Many of those people, however, did absolutely nothing to contribute to the success and greatness of our nation. I did not want to be counted in their ranks. I would rather make my patriotism known with my actions…so I joined the United States Army.

While in the military, I hope to continually challenge myself to grow and expand in all areas of my life. I hope to better myself in terms of self-discipline, leadership, self-confidence and many other areas. I hope to provide a solid home life for my wife and whatever children the Lord will give me.

My Testimony: Looking Back at the Grace of God (Part 3)

The church eventually grew and we purchased a building downtown. The building was an old double movie theatre. I used to laugh and tell my friends that I went to the movies three times a week. They would look at me and then I would explain about the building.

While in the youth group one summer we had a youth revival. The man preached a message called “Don’t Let the Light Go Out”. The sermon was on hell. He had all of the lights off in the auditorium except for one flashing red light. Since our building used to be a theatre there were no windows in the auditorium. It was pitch black. In the background while he was preaching he was playing a tape of people screaming in pain, it sounded like people were falling, and being tortured or in serious pain which was the point. The sound was to be people in hell crying out for relief. At the end of the sermon he shut the light off which represented us dying without Christ and at death we didn’t have any more chances to come to Christ. I felt convicted in my heart that I was lost and on my way to hell. However I regret to say that I did nothing about it that day. I believe that this was in June of 1998 or maybe July. I kept telling myself that I already took care of this a long time ago.

The Lord kept working on me about this over the summer. In September of 1998 we had a revival meeting. The evangelist was telling about his different booklets one night before the service and one of the ones he talked about was his booklet entitled “Salvation is Simple ABC”. I was so convicted about my lost state that I could barely sit in my seat to listen to the sermon. After the service that night I accepted Christ as my savior. I was baptized the next night after the service.

I surrendered my life to serve the Lord anywhere, anyway. I made many decisions as a teenager that have gotten me to where I am today with God’s grace and help. Who my friends were going to be, who I wasn’t going to be like, that I would remain pure until I got married, and the list could go on.

I attended a public school until I was in eighth grade and then was homeschooled until I was done with high school. After high school I attended a bible college for two years and then worked on staff at a Christian summer camp where I met and started dating my husband.

There are several people through the years that have made a major impact in my life. Some of them have passed on to Heaven to be with the Lord. I am so grateful for all of them and there is no way that I can repay them but to invest in the lives of others.

As I look back over the years I see where my life could have lead if I didn’t surrender and follow the leading of the Lord in my life. For all of you who think that God can’t use you because you come from a broken home, or it seems like no one else in your family is serving the Lord. You can make it and serve the Lord if you seek Him in your life and surrender to Him daily. You don’t have to be another statistic or a bad sermon illustration.


Serving the Master,

Diane Cardot

My Testimony: Looking Back At The Grace of God (Part 2)

The man knocked on our door and introduced himself as Pastor Brad Cranston. He was the pastor of a church that was recently started and was meeting at the local community college on Sundays and in his home on Wednesdays. The church was an Independent, fundamental, KJV only Baptist Church. He invited us to church and we started attending in the next few weeks.

On August 22, 1992 Pastor Brad Cranston came into our home and led me through a prayer in our living room. I didn’t get baptized right away because we had to go to another church to use their baptistery. In October of 1992 Heritage Baptist Church was established and I was a part of the founding day. I remember signing the member roll.

For a while my pastor worked a second job to support his family and the small congregation. I can remember going to church and it was the pastor’s family, my family and a hand full of others. One of the jobs my pastor did on the side was to be a substitute bus driver. The year that I was in third grade we were required to take swim lessons at the local high school. I can remember being ashamed that he would see me not in a skirt like he did at church but in shorts or pants. I used to try to use my backpack to cover it up so that he couldn’t see. Little did I know that it was the Holy Spirit working on me to convict me about my dress standards.

While helping in the nursery one Sunday morning a lady in the church asked me if I wore dresses all of the time. I said no and went about my day. It was a question that I couldn’t get out of my mind. I can remember surrendering to God in this area of my life. I went home from church and told my mom that I didn’t want to wear pants anymore but that I only wanted to wear skirts and dresses. My mom said ‘ok’ and she went to my closet and she removed all of the pants and shorts that I owned. She removed the temptation from me after telling me that once I made the decision there would be no turning back. This is a decision that I do not regret as I believe that this is God’s will.

To Be Continued on Tuesday...

My Testimony: A Look Back at the Grace of God (Part 1)

I have been in church almost every day of my life since I was born. I attended Riverside Baptist Church until I was about three years old. Sometime before I turned three my mom came home from work to find another woman leaving her house. This woman was having an affair with my biological father. As a result, my mom and my biological father were divorced sometime before I was three.

Shortly after, my mother married Gary, now my stepfather, on the day after Christmas in 1986. Gary took on the role of a father to my older brother Dean, who would have been 10, and to me. He loved us as if we were his own children. At the time that they were married, Gary had three children of his own living with him. He also had four other children, one whom he had adopted.

We attended the First Southern Baptist Church from 1986 until the summer of 1992. The Southern Baptist Church did preach salvation, however they did not believe in standing for the King James Version or in a biblical separation of dress.

Each summer the church had what was called ‘backyard bible school’. This was very similar to Vacation Bible School which many of you are very likely familiar with but instead of taking place at the church it took place in the home of a church member. One summer I must have made a confession of faith buy I don’t remember it. What I do remember is being baptized. The baptistery was huge it was the size of a small swimming pool or at least it seemed like it to me.

In July of 1992 I was standing in the kitchen talking to my mom and dad. My older brother Chris was present there as well. We looked out the window and saw a man walking down the street wearing a white shirt. We had a lot of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons that knocked on our doors growing up. We all assumed that this man was from one of these two churches. I remember someone saying that they needed to go get one of our church tracts to give to him. Little did we know that this man would have a huge impact on my life personally.

To Be Continued Tomorrow...