Saving

"Although we need to be saved from eternal separation only once, Christ continues His saving work in us the rest of our lives" (Beth Moore).

What a reminder! I've told you about the Biblestudy that some girlfriends and I started doing via email (do to the great distance between us all). We are in our second week now and are really being open, honest, and vulnerable to each other. I'm blessed beyond words to see how God is teaching us with each other's stories, how He is opening up the door to flood each other with our deepest prayer requests, and how He will draw us closer to Him that we may better share His joy with the world.
That being said, during our first week (which also served as an introduction) a common theme was the young age we were each saved. But many of us, though asking Jesus into our lives early in life, 'rededicated' our lives, so to speak, to Christ at a later date, mainly in college. One of the girls explained her experience this way:

"One thing I have thought about recently especially as I
get older and more of my friends have been saved at a much later age (in college
or even later) and not in Sunday school at six like me, is that (at the risk of
sounding too compare-y) other people who may have been saved at a later age have this much more dramatic conversion experience and have a much more mature
understanding of God before being saved. They really recognize the horror of
their sin and their desperate need for a Savior. I think I knew those things at
six, but it was only at a six year old level."

Oh my, how much I agree with that statement! The last several months, I've really struggled with the date of when I was saved. Was it when I was six? Or was it when I was in Romania, July 15th, 2004, and during my testimony, realizing how desperate I am for Christ, and feeling His marvelous mercy and grace rain down on me. Knowing that He loves me so much! I spent so much time growing up doing the right things, behaving the right way, and was wondering if it were just for my parents? But I know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that I loved Jesus and believed in Him, and He was my Saviour then. He is my Saviour now. When I read those words this morning, that Christ is continuing His saving work every day of our lives, I felt this amazing peace. Maybe that is not something you see as important. But for me, I want to celebrate the day God called me to Himself. It is more important than the day of my birth. Salvation is the greatest gift one can ever receive, and I praise God that this 'wishy-washyness' in my mind was put to rest through the words He spoke to me this morning.
"Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them" Hosea 11:3-4. May God help me to acknowledge Him daily and never forget that He teaches me, every moment, how to walk.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" Ephesians 2:8. What a precious gift, and how marvelous, how wonderful, that after receiving that gift, if we mess up (which we will), our Saviour is right there with us guiding us back to the path of righteousness.
Praise God that He never leaves us or forsakes us!