Most of my Christian friends know full well in great detail the day on which they were "saved". For a long time, I was reticent to use this term because I don't think it means what they think it means. However, I remember full well the day I first came to Christ, when I knew there was a God, and the day I fully surrendered to His will. For your benefit, I recount those defining moments to you today.
I awoke many years ago to God in a small Idaho town on an inauspicious afternoon. For some reason that day in my eighth year of age, I felt dejected and alone. At length, I retired to the "basement" of our split-level home where there was a concrete cubby under the stairs that my brother and I often used as a fort. I knelt and prayed as I was taught, and it was there that God first made Himself known to me when I was certain it wasn't some other influence.
Unless you have experienced it, it's hard to describe. I felt like I do when my mother hugs me after I come home from a long journey. I felt lighter, not like I lost weight, but like I would if I could float, and like I do when I'm in a better mood. My concerns and troubles melted away from my mind and were replaced by a peace, no, by a serenity. Somehow I knew that I mattered and that what was on my mind mattered. That was the day I was "saved", not because I did anything special but because recognition is the first step to reformation. On that day, I realized for the first time that there was a God, and that made me willing to avail myself of His power to save me from death. The day I surrendered came a bit later.
Although I relied heavily on my relationship with God and His spirit through my school years, I didn't immediately declare myself as a member of His team. Over the years, I referred to the spirit as my friend Hal, Hal E Ghost (Holy Ghost) when people would ask me about what I was doing or who my friends were. When invited to something uncomfortable, I told people I was going to hang out with Hal. For some reason, nobody ever questioned that I had a friend with that name in my age bracket. For many years, He was my only companion when I was away from family, and I learned a lot from His tutelage.
After I started High School and had my conversations with my friend "Richard", I knew I needed to decide if I was on the Lord's side. One of my years at Youth Conference, the speakers encouraged us to submit ourselves to God. I remember hearing Larry Johnson talk about a boy named Kent Williams who, at my age then, had declared an all out war against satan, and I still own the journal where I did the same thing. I remember feeling when I did so that I had made a choice I could not take back and that satan knew who I was and that I had done this. It was on that day that I surrendered to God and started to become the man I am.
Salvation is very important. It is also only part of God's plan for us. It is not enough to save us from sin and death. He intends for us to return to His presence and partake of exaltation. In order to be exalted, we must not just say some trite phrases or offer up a prayer and assume all is done. After we allow the atonement of Christ to purify us, we continue to live like disciples of Christ and discipline ourselves to live as He taught. It does not get us in; it shows that we appreciate what Christ did that we show Him that we still love Him by following His commandments.
Salvation is a gift of grace. It is given to any who will accept it. Exaltation is also a gift, a gift made possible by the suffering of Christ in Gethsemane. It is given to all who allow it. All too often we do not allow Christ to save us, because we don't really want Him to. We want to continue to sin and have Him take the consequences, but that's not how it works. By this you shall know if a man repents of his sins- behold he will confess them and forsake them.
That day in the basement, I forsook the normal life or mortality for that of another world. I cannot say that it has always been easy or that I have done it as well as I would like. I confess that I am less of a man and a disciple than I ought to be. When I have made errors, I have forsaken those too and changed my way. For a long time, I have been telling people to improve when they can and hold their ground when they get there. That's how we secure salvation and make it mean something.
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