I grew up going to a Methodist church on Christmas and Easter whether I liked it or not. I always thought I was a Christian, that the bible was good, Jesus was good and that I was good. When I was 34 I visited a church by my house and shortly thereafter was visited by three people from the church. I remember seeing them pull up and I saying, "Why are the church people here?" They asked me two of the most important questions that I've ever been asked. First, was I at a place in my spiritual life that if I died that day, was I sure that I'd go to heaven? Then they asked me, if I died that day and I stood before God and He asked me, Eric, why should I let you in My heaven? I remember pausing for a long while. Thinking silently of answers like, I try to do the right thing or I think I'm a pretty good person. I decided those answers were pretty weak so I said, I don't know. It was then that they shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with me. At the end, they asked if I wanted to pray for salvation in Christ and I said no. I wasn't embarrassed to say no, I just didn't know what yes would mean. They thanked me for the conversation and said they hoped to see me back at church. After they left, I found a bible that I had never read and went straight to the end to see how it ended. I never do that with books but was very interested at that point to read the end. In Revelation 21:8, it talks about all these bad people that would end up in the lake of fire. I didn't associate myself with any of those people. Then I stared at the word for one group of people in that verse. It said "unbelievers. By saying no, I was defined as an unbeliever. Now that bothered me. God used that answer to get me to find out what the bible actually said. I went to church Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. I sat front and center and was amazed at who Jesus actually was. I thought the book was all about love and found out about God's holiness and wrath. It took me nine months to pour over scripture and finally realized that I was seperated from a holy, righteous and just God because of my sin. In July of 1996, I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross for my salvation.

That's my story Dean!