I've been meaning to write this for a long time.

Matthew 9:12-13
They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick....for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
I was born into a Christian home, but that does not get anyone into heaven. At a very young age, I asked Jesus to save me, but I have no recollection of that moment. However, that is what I based my salvation on until I learned in school chapel one day that if you can't remember a time that you have asked the Lord to save you, you are not saved. That made me uncomfortable, but even more uncomfortable for me was when the teacher asked for testimonies from the class and my friend wanted me to give my testimony. I just couldn't.....I didn't have one to give. The summer before 4th grade, I asked Jesus to save me so I could go to heaven. (I did not see myself as someone that sinned and in need of salvation from sin. I just wanted to be saved because that was what I was supposed to do to go to heaven. Since God does not let sin into heaven and cannot save someone who does not think they sin, I kind of missed the whole point of salvation.) In 7th grade, I knew I was a sinner, and at the end of the school year, my family went to hear J. Harold Smith preach at a local church. The last sermon we heard was called God's Three Deadlines. It was quite an emotional sermon, and I asked Jesus to save me from my sins because that is what I had been told you are supposed to do to be saved. However, I was not truly sincere about being saved from my sins. I just wanted to say the right thing to God so that I would not have to go to hell. You see, the Bible says that Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I knew I was a sinner, but didn't really care about being saved from sin. I was secure in my profession of faith until I was 23 years old, and anyone who knew me would have said that I was a Christian. The church I was attending was having special services on the book of Revelation. I was sitting in my car before church thinking that it was so good that I didn't doubt my salvation. I don't know what happened, but as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I began to have doubts. I struggled for five years about whether I was saved or not. I would ask the Lord to show me. In His own way he did. No matter what church I happened to be visiting whether in NC, FL, or TX it seemed that the same semon on salvation was being preached. I finally asked the Lord to save me at my own church as I played my own invitation at the piano. The ironic thing is that I can't remember the song I was playing. All I can remember was saying, "Okay, Lord, save me." I knew I was a sinner, and I wanted the Lord to take those sins away. I had always heard of the peace that God gives when you ask Him to save you, but at that moment I experienced it.