The Bible "Expert" Repents and Gives Her Heart to Jesus

Being now a self-declared "expert" on the Bible, I decided that I should start a religious club on our high school campus. I put a note in the school newspaper to arrange a meeting with others who may have a similar interest. A couple dozen kids showed up, all of whom happened to be Christians.

As it turned out, these students knew of an organization that we could hook up with, so the group developed into a Youth for Christ (YFC) club. The other students elected me as President, assuming I suppose that I belonged to Jesus since the club was my idea. But I had not yet admitted I needed Jesus to forgive me and be my Savior. Up until then I was reveling in a combination of self-inflated righteousness and an awe of the God who was always there.

It was at YFC that I met many significant friends, ones who wanted to talk about the purpose of life. One who became a best friend was Marilyn Petersen, now Kirshberger. Marilyn and I hung out a lot together, even shared hot fudge sundaes on our birthdays. There were a couple of twins who were leaders in the Eagle Rock YFC, Ed and Ernie, who were the heart throbs for many gals.

YFC had retreats and camps where we talked about what it meant to follow Jesus. We hung out with other YFC leaders from other schools. The photo below is taken at a retreat with my good Snowman Friend who borrowed my crutches (but not my cast).

 

And one time we mourned together as a young YFC leader named Hal was killed in an car crash—yet his funeral was one of giving thanks for his life. I’d never been to a funeral before and it seemed a whole new way to look at life and death for me.

I had also discovered a Swedish Covenant church near our home and started going there every week. The teaching from God's Word by Pastor Lorin Soderwall was good and I met many amazing, heart friends there, like Sherry Rife, now Loewen. They all spoke very directly about Jesus and how to share our problems and concerns with Him. I went through a confirmation class here where I learned many things about what it meant to follow Jesus. Here’s a picture of my confirmation class. Sherry is in the middle. You can see my cast from one of the surgeries.

Our youth directors at church, Larry and Marilyn Pendleton, took me into their family and home and even let me come on vacations with them. They had a poodle named Fifi who used to water ski on a board attached to their boat. So funny to watch. I babysat their three boys, Steve, Ricky, and Gary, often, but it didn't stop there. We’d sit around the living room and openly talk about the deeper issues of life and what it meant to follow Jesus. They answered question after question—even ones about why God would allow me to have all my leg problems. I’d never encountered people like this.

SO, surrounded by God's people, and being continually exposed to God's Word, I recognized my need of more than social religion. During tenth grade I asked Jesus to be the center of my life, to forgive my anger and sins and be my Savior. And thus at 16 years old I began my new life with him.

From now on I hope to share a song that represents a part of my new life and nomadic journey and mention Scripture that talks about it too. Here’s the song for this one, sung by my 3 grandsons: Three Boys Sing "At the Cross" The words are a bit different that the traditional song since I rewrote them for young children to sing and understand: At the cross, at the cross, where Jesus died for me. And the bad things that I've done got erased. It was there at the cross, I gave Him my heart and now He’s the one I want to please. 

So for this one, Ephesians 2:8-9 expresses what He did for me at this time of my life: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.