There are no magical words that result in SALVATION, but if we understand and BELIEVE that Jesus Christ died on the cross for OUR SINS, and recognize that we are sinners and ADMIT to GOD that we have sinned... and at the same time, if we KNOW that GOD FORGIVES US completely, instantly, and freely...AND, then if we COMMIT our lives to Jesus Christ and ACCEPT GOD's gift of eternal life, WE WILL BE SAVED.  We can come to know these things through HIS words, which we find in HIS book, the Bible...and through the testimonies of the prophets and the disciples and the citizens of HIS church...including those living HIS WORD today in OUR CHURCH here and now! 

From the "Memoirs" of Marian Petit:

My Most Significant Experience

   The summer I turned 17 , we had moved to a farm in Glen Aubrey, New York.  I was out on the front lawn one Sunday afternoon when a car with two young men in it pulled up.  They invited me to attend the special meetings they were going to be starting the next week in the little Church about a mile up the road; and having nothing better to do, I promised I would go.

   These two young men were from Practical Bible School in Johnson City, NY, and they had been out for a joy ride one afternoon and had seen the little Church all boarded up and ready for sale.  They had gotten down on their knees on the Church steps and covenanted with the Lord.  If He would open the way for them to come back after graduation, they would hold special meetings there.

   Of course, the Lord honors a request like that, and the young men came with mops and pails and all sorts of cleaning supplies and blitzed up the Church!  They even varnished the pews, but they used the wrong type of varnish.  They should have used shellac.  The warm June weather would mold the warm bodies to the pews...and when the people would stand for the hymns, it was RIP RIP RIP all over the place!

    Well, I walked to the Church the first night of the meetings and sat down in one end of a pew.  During the service, I became convicted.  Oh, I already believed in God and knew that Christ died for the whole world, but it was that night, for the first time, I realized that Christ died for ME.  It was a personal thing and had to be settled personally.

     I promised myself that before they finished the invitation hymn, I would go forward.  The congregation started the chorus, but my feet felt glued to the floor.  I began to think, "I know I should go forward, but if I do, the Preacher will make me stay after the meeting and I didn't do the dishes before I left."

     The Preacher said from his pulpit, "Maybe you're thinking about the work you have to do, never mind, the Lord will take care of that."  Then I thought, "What will I do for entertainment?" 

      The Preacher said, "Maybe you're wondering what you will do for entertainment, never mind, the Lord will take care of that."  Next I thought,  "But what will my friends think?"  The Preacher said,

     "Maybe you are thinking about what your friends will say.  Never mind, the Lord will take care of that."  Every argument the devil put into my mind, the Preacher answered from the pulpit! 

      By this time, the hymn was nearly finished.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big man step next to me.  He gave me a push out into the aisle.  I turned around to give him an elbow jab in the midsection that he wouldn't soon forget...but there was not another person in my entire half of the pew.  I could see the space the man had occupied slowly disappear.

      Here I was, out in the aisle, hanging on to the pew ahead of me, and then I heard a sweet voice say, "You have come this far, why not go all the way?"  And so I did.  The Church probably wouldn't seat more than 50 people at full capacity, so the aisles weren't very long, but before I reached the front, I knew I WAS SAVED!  I felt the HOLY SPIRIT enter my body just as the Scriptures promise!

      The Preacher didn't keep me very long and I walked home.  I really don't remember my feet touching the ground that entire mile.  As I looked around, the grass seemed so much greener, the sky much more blue, the wild flowers so much prettier, even the cows looked blacker and whiter than I had remembered!  When I walked into the kitchen, I hadn't taken six steps before I blurted out to my Mother, "I accepted Christ tonight!".  She was pleased as she was also a Christian.

     I'm sure I've disappointed my Lord many times during my lifetime but HE has never disappointed me!

                                                                                                                                                   submitted by Marian Petit   August 2008

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From "Brownie" ~

     As a child, Sunday School and Church being a "must", I learned the behaviors that pleased God.  I liked the two pennies (the only money that we were ever given)that I was to put in the little Church bank; that joy has never left me!

     Although we all attended, we never quite learned the Commandment to "Love One Another".  Except for my Mother, love was in short supply growing up, especially between we three first siblings. 

     One day, when I was about 12 or 13, my older sister and I were having one of our frequent quarrels and were exchanging "words", some of which my sister had learned at a very early age from whome we don't know as swear words were never heard at home!  On these occasions quarreling with my sister, however, I myself sometimes used a nasty word. 

     But on this particular day, something strange came over me; and I said to myself, "I'm not going to say that word anymore."  (I had already made the decision never to smoke or to drink.) As long as I live, I will always believe, that there in the kitchen, in the middle of a heated quarrel, I gave my heart to Jesus.  The Church was my refuge during the emotional stress of my parents' divorce.

     When I was age 59, my sister then 61, in a cute little A-frame Motel, told me of a lifetime of jealosy of me.  That was the beginning of many wonderful trips together.  We both loved God's outdoors; unfortunately, she never learned of God's LOVE.

                                                         Submitted by Betty Brown, September 2008

 

Worship … it’s about inviting the Holy Spirit to join with us as we magnify His Name. It’s about equipping and encouraging others in glorifying Our Father. It’s about preserving a Holy Ground where people are free to surrender their all to the Father Who loves them. It’s about God’s story; and our story; and where they intersect.
When we gather together to worship Christ, He is present, and amazing things happen. Hearts are opened, lives are healed, and joy is experienced. Together, we seek to focus on Jesus, discover Who He is and what He would speak into our lives.