My life began as an only child in the frozen tundra of northern Minnesota. My parents were godly believers who loved the Lord and were involved in ministry, my dad as a pastor and my mom as a Sunday school teacher along with other responsibilities. Our home was filled with the knowledge of God as my parents took seriously the principle of Deuteronomy 6:7: “You shall teach [God’s words] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”
My parents and Sunday School teachers clearly and repeatedly laid the essential truths of the gospel before me: that I was a sinner (Romans 3:23), and that God is perfect, without sin and separate from it (Romans 6:23). They taught me that because God loves me, though I am a sinner, He sent Jesus Christ to die for my sin (Romans 5:8). I heard over and over that if I simply believed in Jesus Christ, I would be saved (Acts 16:31). Many times I heard these words and took them to heart – but I didn’t understand them. I didn’t understand what it meant to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. “When you are old enough, you will understand,” my dad would say.
With these foundational elements solidly planted in my thinking, it was only a matter of time before I became old enough to exercise simple, childlike faith in Jesus Christ. One night, shortly before I turned six years old, I remember lying in bed, alone with my thoughts. A troubling question came to my head: was I going to heaven? Recalling what my parents had taught me, I realized that no, I had not believed in Jesus Christ, and thus no, I was not going to heaven. Instead, I was on my way to hell, the just penalty for my sin. This scared me. “Lord, I believe,” I told Him. Beyond those three words, I didn’t know how to articulate my reliance on Him, but I understood that night that only Christ’s death on the cross could save me from a hell I deserved. God made me His child at that moment – and has kept me securely ever since.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12)