PERSONAL TESTIMONY

"...I believed, and therefore have I spoken" 2 Cor. 4:13b

 

by Debra Dery

This been a year of dramatic change for me! It has been since February 1998, that I have been sitting in front of a grace preacher instead of a "traditional denominational" preacher where I sat since early childhood. I admit that this change was brought about by a discontented husband and it was most definitely not of my choosing! I was quite content where I was, doing what I was doing. I taught the teen class, I was a Sunday School Board member, and I sang in the choir. My husband heard a grace preacher on the radio, and then insisted on driving forty miles to hear him where there was only a handful or two of followers. Alain was excited; I acquiesced for the unity of my family.

That first Sunday I left my Bible at home since it was not KJV as this new preacher espoused. After the second Sunday, I told Alain I wanted my own Bible. I had never studied from the KJV and never realized the importance of each and every word therein. My Bible is such a personal book that I needed to circle, underline, and scribble notes in my own, and not his. I have always believed the Bible was God*s Holy Word, but until I started studying a KJV, I never realized the importance of using it over another version. I began to see many "new" things under the teaching of this dispensational preacher. He pointed out a mystery, a kingdom gospel, a gospel of grace taught by the apostle Paul, and the dispensations (times

past, but now, and the ages to come). Why had I never seen these things before? Yet, there they were in God*s Holy Word! I saw them there myself and knew them to be true.

Those first tentative weeks seem so long ago now. I have learned so much since then and am continually amazed at all God has done and all He is planning to do. I have learned that I am not a sheep, but a new creature in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). I am no longer a child tossed to and fro, but am growing up into Him in all things (Eph. 4:14-15). 1am no longer restrained by the crook of a shepherd*s staff, but am learning to wield the sword of truth as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 2:3). But most important to me, I have really absorbed the fullness of the cross. Having come out of a denomination that taught you could lose your salvation, I now know that I know I am complete in Christ (Col. 2:10), that He reconciled me to Himself through His death on the cross and now I am holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in His sight (Col. 1:20-22)! My faith in Christ, not my works, is counted for righteousness (Rom. 4:5). And, I am already seated in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 2:6).

As mainline Christianity is preparing to celebrate Christ*s resurrection, I have learned to glory in it every day. "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" (2 Cor. 5:2 1). GLORY!