She started to read her Bible in her alone time.   God’s Word became more and more important to her.  One night after church,  she went back to her room and in private she prayed, “Lord Jesus, I am not sure that I am forgiven.  I believe in you.  I want you to live in me.  Will you forgive me?”  Again, Jesus’ voice did not speak out loud, but this time He reminded her of a Bible verse that she had memorized as a little child in Sunday school.  It is I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Did it say she was forgiven?  It sure did.  If she confessed her sins this verse promised God’s faithfulness and justice to forgive her.  Now she could be sure that Jesus had forgiven her.  Doubt finally left, not because of a good feeling, but because the Bible said so.

The fear of hell disappeared because Jesus paid for her sins and forgave her.  Assurance took its place in her life where fear had been been in control for so long.  Besides that, she had found Jesus to be her best friend, one who would never leave her.

Our little girlfriend has the most wonderful friend now.  What is His name? It is Jesus.  Does she still get afraid and lonesome?  Sometimes, but that is when Jesus helps her. He reminds her of His promises in the Bible.  She can feel safe because He is in charge of everything.

Is she glad she is a Christian?  She sure is and I brought her here  to tell you so.  Her name is Wendy.  I am that little girl.  I hope you are all busy learning about Jesus at Sunday school.  Listen well, memorize your Bible verses, because Jesus will remind you of the things you learn here when you grow up.  He will talk to you from the Bible.

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Some things in life changed for the little girl.  She became a young lady and she would soon graduate from high school.  She chose a college and made plans to study nursing.  This move she faced with excitement and a little fear.  Sadly, she left some friends at home and had to make new ones all over again at college.

While she went to the high school, a war had started to take young men to southeast Asia.  Her cousin was one of them.  He was just 18 years old.  He believed in Jesus.  He was a Christian.  Word came that her dear cousin died from the wounds he suffered in that war.  He was now in heaven.

She had to face the fact that even young people die.  “Everybody,” she thought, “should be ready when it is their time to die, even me.”  This sobering thought gave her the desire to read the Bible.  She wanted to “be ready.” She wanted to go to heaven some day.  The old question came back to haunt her,  “Am I really forgiven?”

As a college student she made a desperate attempt to find good people to befriend.  She looked for them at a church youth group.  She expected to find young people and adults at the church who would support the life-style that she had chosen.

She wanted to serve Christ.  She experienced joy with these new friends she had and with learning about Jesus. They encouraged her to follow the Lord.

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It took time, but the little girl grew.  She passed from sixth grade into seventh grade. The coming changes in her life made her fearful.  She was going to  a big new school…the high school.

Life got a bit frightening for her.  Her class alone had 180 seventh graders in it.  Each classroom she attended was full of strangers.  That uncomfortable beginning of school made her ask herself, “Does anybody else feel like I do? Am I the only one?”

Even playing softball with the neighbor kids she found threatening.  She did not know how to play and expected the kids to laugh at her.  So she retreated from the games and talked to a good friend of hers…her gray tabby cat.  He always seemed to understand; he was a good listener, but still she was lonely.

The little girl’s mom taught her how a good Christian girl should live.  She believed with all of her heart that her mom taught the truth.  She did not want to live her life any other way.  You see, Jesus still had not told her that she was forgiven…at least, she did not know that He had.  So, she figured she ought to live and be as good as she could.  ” That way,” she thought, ” when I die and God measures my good works and my bad works, there will be more good ones and He will have to let me in to heaven, right?”

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(When our youngest daughter was just 1-1/2 years old, a Sunday School group invited me to speak to the children. What an opportunity!  The following is from that message to young children. I hope you enjoy it and can share it with some of your favorite kids.)

Once there was a little girl who lived with her Mommy and Daddy and her little brother, Jimmy.  They lived in a 2-room house. The house was built on a piece of swampy land.  Cattails grew in the back yard.

Most days she heard the cry of seagulls and saw the view of Superior, the lake so big that no one can see across it. When riding with her parents, she often could see choppy waves and whitecaps on the huge lake by her house. On hot days, she swam in it. The sandbar stretched out far into the lake, and yet the water only came up to her knees.  She loved to splash in it and play in the sand that blanketed the beach.

Artesian wells are not uncommon where she grew up. Cold, refreshing drinking water just bubbled up out of the ground all by itself. To those living in other parts of the world, the sights she saw as a child are special.

Sometimes her Daddy took her miles away from the lake into the thick birch and poplar forests.  They picked wild blueberries that grew ripe in July.  Black bears lived in the woods.  But she never saw one unless it was in a cage or at the dump where bears ate garbage for supper.  She wasn’t afraid of bears.  She was just glad that rattlesnakes did not live where she did.  Now that made her feel safe!

Many times Mommy took her and Jimmy to Sunday School.  She learned about many things, such as sin and hell, Jesus’ love and His death on the cross.  Sunday School helped her to want to please God even at her young age.

Hell, that terrible place for people who do not go to heaven, frightened her.   People had to sin to go there.  She knew that she had run away from Jimmy when he wanted to play with her.  Besides that, she remembered that she disobeyed Mommy and Daddy sometimes.  “Wasn’t that sin? Yes,” she thought, ” it was.”

Whatever could she do?  She did all she knew to do.  She said, “Forgive me, Jesus.”  But Jesus did not say anything back to her.  So she really did not know if He did or did not forgive her.

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