I received the God's free gift of salvation as a child when my grandmother took me with her to hear Billy Graham. Grandma knew from past experience that I would wiggle around and fidget. . . want to draw pictures and basically not listen to the preacher. She also knew I was old enough to understand what the preacher was saying if she could just get me to listen.
My grandma was very loving but also very straight forward and strict. I learned early that I couldn't win a battle with her. She was a real winner in every way. Let me share an experience that will help you understand what I mean:
My folks moved from Cheyenne, Wyoming to the Renton, Washington area when I was four years old. My grandparents remained in Cheyenne for a few more years before deciding to join the rest of their children near Renton.
In the mean time, one Christmas I received a pocket watch from my grandparents which I carried everywhere. It was with that pocket watch that I learned to tell time. You can imagine the rough treatment that watch received from a six-year-old boy who carried it to school, to play, and everywhere-else I went.
The one thing I remember about that watch was how rugged it must have been because I had dropped it numerous times pulling it from my pocket to check the time of day. It had landed on concrete and rocks and never showed a sign of being damaged.
Eventually my grandparents moved to the Renton area to live. I would often spend a day or two with them, sleeping in the little extra bedroom of their small home, which had polished hard-wood floors.
During one of those visits I misbehaved and grandma sat me down in a rocking chair and told me to sit there until she said I could get up. She sat across from me in another chair knitting. After setting there for a few minutes I asked if I could get up and she naturally refused.
Being a bratty little child, I came up with a plan to threaten her into letting me get out of the chair. My plan was this: Because I knew that my pocket watch she had given me was so rugged, and had been dropped so many times without breaking, I pulled it out of my pocket and held it by the stem, over the hard-wood floor next to me. I then proceeded to explain that, if she didn't let me get up I was going to drop the watch she had given me and it would break and she would be sorry.
Of course I wasn't worried about it breaking.
Of course she wasn't about to change her mind.
I slowly allowed the watch to slip from between my fingers and let it fall to the hard-wood floor. As you can imagine, it burst into many pieces, bouncing in all directions across the floor.
My grandmother had only one thing to say: "Now you can sit there a lot longer!" Of course, I didn't have anything to say because I was heart-broken. I loved my grandmother and I loved the pocket watch she had given me. I don't think I will ever forget that feeling.
So, back to the gift I received because of my grandmother's strict instructions the day we went to hear Billy Graham.
On that day she said, "I want you to sit up straight and pay attention." I didn't argue and I listened to what Billy Graham had to say. I don't remember his exact words but I want to share with you the message of those words that reached inside my heart that day and changed my life forever.
The first notion that caught my attention was that there is a place called Heaven and a place called Hell. And, that the soul that lives within my body will not die when my body dies. My soul was created by God to live eternally. When it leaves my body at death it will either go to Heaven to be with God or it will go to hell to be tormented for eternity.
Only a fool would choose the second option so I was now more interested in listening than before. In fact my grandmother wouldn't have needed to be watching me so close to see if I were obeying her this time.
The next thing Mr. Graham explained was how Adam had sinned as an individual, but how that sin had been passed on to the multitudes that followed. He also explained that God despises sin and the devil, who promotes it. But God still loved Adam and He loves each of us who have descended from Adam. For that reason God has allowed his only begotten son, Jesus, to die in our place - to pay the debt for our sin.
He explained that there is no sin in Heaven and therefore I could never enter under my present condition. But Jesus, who had never sinned, was sent down to die in my place. His sinless death could be my substitute. All I needed to make the trade was to trust Him as my savior.
I simply needed to believe with all my heart that God loved me in the same way my grandma loved me. My grandma loved to please me and have me close by, but she also had a strict set of rules. She had become a very clear representation of what God is like. That day I understood His plan of salvation, thanks to my grandma.
Near the end of the service Mr. Graham invited all who would trust in Jesus to come down to the front. I rose from my seat with my grandmother following behind and made my way from where I had been listening, high above the field of the football stadium, to the speaker's platform at one end of the playing field.
With the help of a very nice older gentleman I bowed my head and prayed, asking God to forgive me for my sin and inviting Him into my life.
That's when I accepted the FREE GIFT. It was free for me, free for my grandmother, free for millions of others, and, it's free for you too. If you haven't accepted it yet I hope you will do so soon. Since that day God has been watching over me and taking care of me just like my grandma did when I was a child.
If you would like to know more about how you can also accept God's free gift of salvation CLICK HERE!