Testimony of Salvation

Jen Bauer

 

A little while back, I asked some of my readers if they would be willing to share their testimony. I had it on my heart to share my story with others and realised that all too often, we who were raised in Christian families, are hesitant to share our testimony of salvation as we feel that it is not 'share-worthy'. 

We often feel like because of the way we were raised and how blessed we were to be sheltered and protected from so many things, we don't have a lot to share about the chains of sin being broken and burdens being lifted. But oh, how we need to hear of God's goodness and his faithfulness to generations. We needn't be ashamed and bashful about sharing what God has done in our lives. 

We need to be reminded and remind others of how blessed it is to have been kept from so much pain and sorrow and how God can change lives. Even from a very young age God can begin the process of sanctification in us. 

This is the testimony of a very close friend of mine. We share a passion for the Word of God and a desire to see women from all walks of life come to know the joy it is to study the Word and go deeper with God, sharing what they learn with others. 

I pray that this testimony will be an encouragement to you and spur you on to becoming bolder in proclaiming the good news as you share with others God's goodness. 

God bless. 

Psalm 35:9

And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation.

I was raised in a Christian home.  I used to have a bit of shame starting my testimony this way, but as an adult I’m so thankful for the grace of God for allowing me to have a Christian heritage.  My dad was saved as a young boy in a Mennonite Church, after meeting my mom and marrying her, he started attending a local Baptist church.  This church had a Christian school that I was privileged to attend.  My dad made many sacrifices to be able to afford for myself and my three brothers to attend Christian school.

 

When I was six or seven years old, I had been struggling with some things at home so I wrote my teacher a note and put it on her desk asking her if we could talk.  I’m not sure what I was planning to talk about, but during the conversation she directed it and asked me if I had ever been saved.  She shared a few verses, and I knew I was a sinner in need of a Saviour.  Being young there wasn’t any major changes in my life.  I graduated from that Christians school and went off to Bible College.  In Bible College I felt the Lord leading me into missions and I surrendered to His will.  

 

I had begun a friendship with a young man named Patrick.  Patrick had been called to missions when he was six years old, and he knew he was specifically called to Australia to work with Aboriginal People.  So, as we began dating, I knew this was something I needed to consider.  I spoke to my dad about it, and he said, “I would rather my daughter in the middle of the Outback in God’s will than living next door out of God’s will.”  I always had his full support. 

 

Patrick and I were married a year after we started dating.  We finished Bible College a few years later and began our journey to Australia.  After 2.5 years of deputation and 3 years of waiting for a visa, we arrived in Australia.

 

I remember during deputation, my husband had preached a message out of Romans 1 that changed my thinking about my relationship with God.  I realised that I had created a “religious tick list” of things I needed to do out of duty to God.  Go to church. Tick.  Read my Bible.  Tick.  Clean the church.  Tick.  Do this.  Tick.  Don’t do that.  Tick.  I had all the outward signs of being a Christian, but there were no inwards signs, there wasn’t much of a relationship with God.  I began doing Bible Studies with a friend and it challenged both of us to dig deeper into God’s Word.  A transformation was taking place as I began to read the Bible to learn about God and Who He is, rather than read the Bible to get my one little nugget to get me through the day.  

 

As I began to study God’s Word, I found that I loved learning about God, but also that I loved God.  I began to have a relationship with Him rather than a religion full of duties.  Yes, I was still going to church and reading my Bible, but a shift had taken place, and I was doing these things now because I loved God.  I remember when I was young and my teacher told me to do something, I said, “Do I have to?”  She said, “No.  You GET to.”  Now, I don’t think of what I have to do for God, I think about what I get to do for God.  

 

When I think of how much God loves me and how He sent His only Son into the world to live among men, then to suffer and be unjustly killed, so that one day I would come to know Him and have a relationship with Him, it is so humbling to think that the Creator of the Universe, who spoke the world into existence, loves me and wants to spend eternity with me.  How can I not spend what little time I have here on earth to live for him?

 

Jennifer Bauer