The Lord Rescued Me

He Reached Down And Saved Me

A Personal Testimony

As I walked down the dark sidewalk leading to the rectory where the pastor lived, I felt some excitement at the prospect of becoming an altar boy and serving God. When he opened the door, I found him to be a serious person – all business. He asked me to genuflect for him. I guessed that this was some sort of test to see if I would make a good altar boy. Well, If the look on his face would determine my success, then I would fail miserably. I worked on my genuflecting ability and I was made an altar boy and served for 5 years. During that time I did not find God as I had hoped.

However, I do look back on that time with thankfulness. I did not sense God in all that I did, but I was glad that I had attempted to serve him in some way. As the years passed, I grew away from the church and God. I hadn’t found anything real in my quest for the Lord during that time. It seemed to me to be all about giving the right responses at Mass, praying the right pray, attending all the church services, and constantly doing all the church required. But, where was God? I didn’t find Him there and felt that maybe this was all there was to religion. My initial attempt to draw near to the Lord had now become a desire that resided deep within me, but seemingly, without any hope of fulfillment.

Life has a way of getting your attention and I was focused on living it and was not even attending church. Down deep, I heard the Lord calling, but other things got in the way. I was far away from the Lord and church. I had no desire to go back to the church I grew up in. I felt there was nothing there that was worth going back to.

As life would have it, some difficulties arose in my life and I started to question things. The Lord put a book by a Christian author in front of me that changed my life. It was what I found in the book that caught my attention. For the first time in my life, I was exposed to the way of salvation. I had never seen this before. I was mesmerized by it. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I thought that it was too good to be true but soon realized that it could be the only way to God.

The author shared the Gospel, or “Good News”, and truly it was. I had been trying to approach God by my works, while the Bible tells us that it is all by faith. Yes, faith in what Christ did at the cross. I knew from a young age that Jesus died for us on the cross, but was told we had to do our part, It was like he didn’t finish the job. Imagine thinking that we could add anything to His sacrifice for us at Calvary. I had finally come to know Him and have a relationship with Him. Religion is our effort to approach God by what we do. Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship with our Lord. We come just as we are and receive forgiveness and eternal life. Without the Lord, we are all in deep waters and without hope. He will reach down and save all those who come to Him in repentance and faith.

I am responsible to the Lord for what I believe. I cannot stand before Him and point to what my church, or pastor, instructed me to believe. He gave us His Word to guide us. Our church may be going God’s way, but we must know the Bible for ourselves. The Lord gave us His Word so that we would know His Way – the only way to salvation. The Lord will come to each hungry heart and reveal himself to them. His love for us compelled Him to become the sin sacrifice for us and die on a cruel cross. I am somewhat saddened when I think that I might have known and walked with the Lord from early in my life, but I am so grateful that the Lord saw my hungry heart and reached down and saved me. The result is the best outcome that I could ever imagine: I can now say that I know Him and that He knows me. I have finally come into the safe harbor of the “Shelter of the Most High.”

“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters” (Psalm 18:16).

P.S. After coming to the Lord, He spoke to me in my spirit and said that He saw me and was with me the night I walked down that dark sidewalk as a child. I believe He gave me the following verses out of Psalm 91:

“Because he has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him…. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer Him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver Him and honor Him.”

I believe the Lord saw me seeking him at an early age and watched over me my whole life, and at just the right moment when the difficulties seemed insurmountable; He reached down in His mercy and rescued me. He saw my desire to know Him and serve Him and watched over me through all those years when I was far from Him. We come to Him as we are and we are delivered, and honored by the Lord as “children of God.” It doesn’t get any better than that. We have much to be grateful for!

See the A,B,C’s of Salvation page on the tqministries.com website. Link below.

https://wordpress.com/page/tqministries.com/5448

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Tom Quinn Ministries – tqministries.com 2021