Religious But Lost! My Name is Jay Anderson. This is My Story . . .

AS I STOOD LOOKING AT THE MANGLED WRECK OF A CAR from which I had just escaped completely uninjured, I finally realized that what the T.V. preacher had been saying was true-that our lives here on earth are so short and fragile; that they could end at any time without any warning.   I knew now that he was talking about me. It wasn't that I didn't know I was going to die someday.   I guess I just didn't think it would happen when I was young.   However, my life nearly ended that night.   I could so easily have been killed in that car accident, and yet I was spared. Verses from the Bible that the preacher had quoted came flooding back to mind: "Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.   Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.   For what is your life?   It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."   (Prov. 27:1; James 4:14) It began to hit home! Although I had heard these verses before, I never really saw them as talking about me-that is, until the night of the accident.   It seemed as if everything came into perspective then.   I have always heard that when someone is near death, his life usually flashes before his eyes.   IT'S REALLY TRUE!! It seemed as if various stages of my childhood and teenage years somehow merged together into one conglomerate memory that passed through my mind in a split second. At that point I finally understood exactly how delicate my life was.   I could have died in an instant. Furthermore, if what the preacher said from the Bible was true, I wasn't ready to meet God when I died.   According to the Bible, I needed to be born again.    Even though I didn't know exactly what that meant, I knew it hadn't happened to me.   I knew it had something to do with being saved, because the preacher was always using that word.   But, as I said, I didn't really understand what these terms meant, or

rather what the consequences of accepting them meant, but I just knew they were talking about me. Those verses applied to me . . . I knew that what I had heard the preacher say about Jesus Christ and the salvation He offered was for me. I knew Christ was the answer to all the doubts, fears, and confusion that had been plaguing me.   You see, for months before the accident, I had been asking myself many questions: Why am I here on this earth?   Where am I going when I die?   Is God real?   Can I know Him? Now, don't get me wrong.   It wasn't that I had never heard anything about God.   I grew up in church.   I knew all about God.   I knew all about Christ (or so I thought).   I knew religion.   I knew the creeds.   I knew the liturgies.   I knew the songs.   I knew the repetitious phrases.   I could quote them from memory. However, even though I knew all these things, I was still empty inside.   I still didn't know what life was all about, nor my purpose for existing.   Then I found out that Christ was the answer to all my questions. You see, the problem was not that I didn't know anything about Jesus.   Religion had taught me about Him. Being religious didn't help. The problem was that I didn't KNOW Him.   I knew ABOUT Him, but I didn't KNOW Him. Furthermore, it wasn't until I heard this preacher on T.V., who opened the Bible and showed me these things from the Scriptures, that I realized I even needed to know Him.   I needed to COME INTO a relationship with Him. I already knew He was the Son of God.   I already knew He was born in a manger in Bethlehem.   I already knew He preached many sermons and healed many people.   I already knew He died on a cross, was buried, and then arose from the grave on the third day and then ascended into Heaven.   I already knew many facts ABOUT Him.   The only problem was, I didn't KNOW Him-personally.   I had never entered into a relationship with Him.   I had never met Him as my Saviour.

Well, for months before the accident, I listened intently to the T.V. preacher talk salvation, or being saved, but I didn't do anything about it.   I guess I just put it off and procrastinated.   That is, until the night of the accident.   I knew then that I couldn't put God on hold any longer.   He had let me get into a car accident that nearly ended my life in order to show me how frail I really was.   I realized then that my life was completely in His hands and that the things I had been hearing on T.V. were true.   I knew that I needed to be saved.   So, laying in my bed one night not long thereafter, I called on the name of the Lord and asked Him to save me (Romans 10:13).   At that instant, I met Christ as my Saviour and was born again, as the Bible says (John 3:3). That was in December of 1992 in Bismarck.   Since then, the Lord has brought me to a church in Fargo that preaches the truth in love and the way of salvation plain.   I am also currently a student here at the Bible Institute that the church has started.   At this point I am unsure what the Lord would have me to do with my degree when I graduate.   I am confident, however, that He will show me in His time. Dear reader . . . I have written this as a testimony to what God has done in my life.   I give all the glory to Him.   He is the One who drew me to Himself when I was lost in sin (Luke 19:10).   He is the One who saved me by His grace (Eph. 2:8), without the aid of any of my good works (Eph. 2:9).   He is the One who washed all my sins away in His own blood (Rev. 1:5) and promises a home in Heaven for me (John 14:2).   He is the One who has done it all and deserves all the praise.   I only regret that I was not bolder to share my faith in Christ with my family and friends when I was first saved.   Since then, however, I have grown in the Lord and I now want everyone to know the Saviour I know. Dear reader, do you know this Wonderful God? Have you ever met Him?   He IS real!!   He wants you to be saved.   He wants you to go to Heaven when you die.   In I Timothy 2:3,4 the Bible says, "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."

Please take time to carefully read God's plan of salvation from the Bible that I have included here.   If you have any questions, please use the information on the back [below] page to contact me. Thank you and God bless you. IF you were to die today, are you 100% SURE you would go to Heaven?   The Bible says YOU CAN BE SURE (1 John 5:13) BUT FIRST, you must realize that what keeps you from going to Heaven are your sins, because: "...your iniquities [sins] have separated between you and your God," Isaiah 59:2. In fact, in God's eyes YOU ARE A SINNER: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" Romans 3:23. SECONDLY, you must realize that there is NOTHNG you can do to save yourself and earn Heaven: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."   Eph. 2:8-9    Baptism, good deeds, church membership, self-righteousness are all exarnples of good works that cannot save you, because: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he [Christ] saved us," Titus 3:5. THE ONLY WAY you can get saved is through Jesus Christ.   He said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."   John 14:6 THAT'S WHY: "...while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."   Rom. 5:8-9 THEREFORE: You must REPENT (change your mind); admit that you are a hell-deserving sinner and can't save yourself.   Call upon Christ, and Him alone, to save you.   "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus [REPENT], and shalt believe in thine heart [TRUST] that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."   Romans 10:9

Jay Anderson 3303 23rd Ave. SW. Fargo, ND 58103 Phone: (701) 293-9526 Email: lve4him@juno.com SEND THE LIGHT P.O. Box 815   Fargo, ND 58107

[Fargo Baptist Church (ND)] [Christian Home Bible Course]