What Really Helped You Get Saved?

[Here Am I]

Welcome, brother, and thank you for that testimony.

It's always a blessing to hear how the Lord has worked in other brethren/sistren's lives: He is so longsuffering and patient, and is still waiting for us when we get done with our shenanigans.

God bless you, glad you joined us.

[Kiwi]

(01-29-2010 07:40 AM)Here Am I Wrote:  Any of you hear a street preacher before you got saved?

Yep, I remember a street preacher years before I got saved, a wee little man was he, but he got up on a bench and shouted that "we were going to Hell" as we walked passed him with big smirks on our faces, laughing. I say I remember him, but he didn't have a big impact on me, I don't think a seed was planted or watered, I just remember him.

The first seed that was planted in my heart was probably the movie Jesus of Nazareth, I can remember it vividly, I was about 10 yrs old and when it showed Jesus being crucified and dying I kept asking my parents why they were doing it to him, but they just told me to hush because we were in the movie theatre and I tended to talk too loud at that age!

Anyway, I voted for "tract" and "personal friend witnessing", I was saved as the result of a close friend who had become a Christian and he really turned into a new creature, his life changed before my eyes and was powerful. But it wasn't just his life change that influenced me, it was the fact that he hounded me repeatedly for 3 months until I started taking the Lord seriously, which I did and I finally bowed my knee and followed the instruction of a gospel tract in getting saved. Sadly, this friend isn't in church any more and is serving mammon instead, it grieves my heart justing thinking about him now, and yet I'll be eternally grateful that God used him in such a mighty way.

[Here Am I]

Thank you, Brother Matthew, for your addition to this thread.

Who knows if the street preaching or the movie you watched planted seeds that would sprout once watered by your friend's witnessing? God has said that His word will not return void, right?

I recall being given tracts while I was waitressing, after I graduated from high school. However, the people who left them were obnoxious and did not leave a tip, just a tract, so I didn't feel very charitable towards their 'religion'.

When I worked in fast food, people coming through the drive through would give me tracts about 'how to get to Heaven' (isn't it interesting that I recall this, now?). I do recall feeling 'offended' by these offers: "Who do they think they are, saying that they're the only ones who know how to get to Heaven?"

And then, there was the time that my husband's coworker invited us to their church, an independent baptist church... ...we were offended at the preaching, all the preacher seemed to talk about was "likker" and "nekid wimmen" and the evils of television advertising (interesting that I remember this?). And why did he need to YELL his message at us? We weren't deaf...

Who is to say that these experiences weren't seeds being planted, and watered, to eventually take root and grow 20 years later? I don't discount them at all.

[PeanutGallery]

I voted [other];
I set out to prove that my religion was the true way to Heaven.
I had before me a Bible and the RCC teachings; God opened my eyes to the errors of my ways.
------------------------
Matthew 22:29
Romans 3:4
Joshua 24:15

[MrsHayseed]

PeanutGallery was it reading the Bible that God used to open your eyes? or someone saying something?

[Kiwi]

(11-15-2010 08:07 AM)Here Am I Wrote:  Who is to say that these experiences weren't seeds being planted, and watered, to eventually take root and grow 20 years later? I don't discount them at all.

Soon after I got saved I remembered several things during my unsaved life where I had paused and considered life vs. death and Jesus Christ, I considered these things as seeds, but I only paused for a nano-second before I joined the flow of the world again. These things included some dreams I had when I was about 10 yrs old, I had died and was drifting away from the earth in a transparent coffin into outer space, I could see the earth slowly spinning, the thought that life was going to continue without me really pulled my heart strings. I had the same dream twice within a few years, both times I woke up crying and in shock. The other thing that made me pause I already mentioned earlier, it was the movie Jesus of Nazareth.

As I grew in Christ I recalled other areas where God had gone to work in my heart as a lost soul, I remembered that street preacher yelling out about Hell, and then there was a man witnessing to a group of us at the beach when I was in my teens, and another time I attended a Christian camp for 4 days but can't recall any impact about Christ there, we did have morning devotions though, but no invitation to get saved.

I am a firm believer that God sows & waters seeds of truth, seeds of the gospel, in the hearts of all people, saved or lost. He is the Almighty God, and He is the one who seeks man, not the other way around. :shepherd:

[Gilligan]

A Bible passage did: Romans 10-9-10.

"That if thou ſhalt confeſſe with thy mouth the Lord Ieſus, and ſhalt beleeve in thine heart that God hath raiſed him from the dead, thou ſhalt bee ſaved.
For with the heart man beleeveth vnto righteousneſſe; and with the mouth confeſſion is made vnto ſalvation."

[PeanutGallery]

(11-15-2010 10:05 PM)MrsHayseed Wrote:  PeanutGallery was it reading the Bible that God used to open your eyes? or someone saying something?

Sorry, didn't even see this post.
Actually, I met a missionary who said he came to preach gospel; I then set out with Catholic Bible and doctrine to prove that he was in wrong religion. It was comparing Bible with doctrine that God opened my eyes.

[Laura]

(03-22-2011 11:53 AM)PeanutGallery Wrote:  

(11-15-2010 10:05 PM)MrsHayseed Wrote:  PeanutGallery was it reading the Bible that God used to open your eyes? or someone saying something?

Sorry, didn't even see this post.
Actually, I met a missionary who said he came to preach gospel; I then set out with Catholic Bible and doctrine to prove that he was in wrong religion. It was comparing Bible with doctrine that God opened my eyes.

I love how God does that. Well, He does say to prove Him! I wonder how many people in Heaven will share a similar testimony?

[William]

(03-22-2011 12:02 PM)Laura Wrote:  I love how God does that. Well, He does say to prove Him! I wonder how many people in Heaven will share a similar testimony?

It'll be interesting! More than we suspect, I think.