Imprisonment and Freedom

I can remember the time before the salvation that my precious Savior gave to me freely, aside from what I had become. On the outside I may have appeared to have life, joy, and happiness, but truly on the inside I was a sad depressed individual, with nothing to live for. Life seeming to bear down upon me with full force driving me farther and farther away from reality, into the realm of I really don’t care; it is all about me. Forgetting that there is a reality, but I like many others thought ignorance was bliss.

Isa. 57:21 (KJV)“There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”

I had many people fooled and some thought that I was the exemplar Christian, but God knew. All the while I was dying inside, being eaten up by a cankerous disease that I didn’t quite understand. Though I had heard about the cure growing up, thank God for wonderful parents who took me to church and exposed me to the glorious gospel. I was completely ignorant of the cure, it had no affect on my conscience at all. The gospel was probably repeated in my ears a thousand times yet I had no understanding at all.

Gal. 6:7 (KJV)“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: . . .”

In Christianity it takes more than just faith to become a Christian. I didn’t ever shy from the gospel when it was preached or even feel convicted about it when I was unsaved. The gospel meant nothing to me when I heard it growing up, then one evening all of that changed.

Jam 2:19 (KJV) "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble."

I was lying in my bed trying to sleep but the sun was just setting so it made it hard to sleep. I was determined to sleep though, because I was tiered and it was my first year pouring concrete with my dad; so I was completely drained. That is when it happened, the unexplainable moving of the Holy Spirit. I became fully aroused from my slumber, with a sense of my sin and my need for God. I sat up in bed and said, “I have never been saved.” The gospel message made full and perfect sense at that moment, and I prayed the worst sinner’s prayer ever and asked Christ into my heart.

John 3:8 (ESV) “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

When I think of my salvation experience I think of God’s sovereignty, for I was lying dead in that tomb like Lazarus, then here comes Christ to the tomb, and says to me, “James rise and come forth.” He didn't come to Lazarus tomb and ask if there was anyone in the tomb who would like to be raise from the dead.

John 11:43 “And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.”

That is what I like about salvation if it had been up to me, I would never have come to know Christ, and died in my sins. Yet Christ first loved me and set aside an appointed time from before the beginning of the world and came and like the wind bloweth the Spirit blew peace in my heart.

Rom 3:11 (ESV)"no one understands; no one seeks for God."

I really like the words to this song by Charles Wesley “And Can It Be” when I think of my salvation experience:

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
my chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

Gal. 6:14 (KJV)“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”