WRITTEN IN MY HEART 2) My Path to New Life in Jesus, Part 2
A Need to Hear the Message of Salvation
By the middle of August 2001, a longing to return to church was becoming stronger and stronger. I wanted to get back to going to church. There was such a desire rising up within in me to hear the message of salvation in Jesus Christ. To hear truth! I knew I just could not go back to the church I had been a member of for 26 years. A church that was more social than spiritual. I wanted to hear God’s truth, the good news of Jesus Christ.
I considered the different churches in my town. The church I chose had parishioners who had come from other area churches and from different denominations in search of a more biblically based church experience.
On the first Sunday after Labor Day, my granddaughter and I attended this church. After the service, a session for those interested in becoming a member was conducted. I sat way in the back of the room and listened to what the pastor had to say. I was relatively satisfied with what I heard. So, my granddaughter and I started attending this church.
September 11 2001
It is doubtful that any of us will ever forget 9/11 and the horror that took place that day. This event brought the Second Coming of Christ into my mind where it has stayed ever since. After this event, churches around the country saw an increase in numbers of people coming to church. Many became concerned with their eternity, about the world coming to an end, about God’s wrath and judgment. God used this horrific event with me as the initial experience of drawing my attention to the end times and the second coming of Jesus.
Sense of Death
As the days of September continued to pass by, I had a greater and greater sense that I was dying. I remember standing in the middle of my kitchen that September and saying ” I would have died from a heart attack by now if it wasn’t for the fact that I am taking blood thinners. (In February of 2000, I had a stroke and was placed on a blood thinner.} This sense of death was lingering over me.
Drawn to Christian TV Programs
My hunger to hear the salvation message and to be told truth was so strong.
In the middle of September 2001, instead of just passing over Christian programs on cable TV stations, I started to be drawn to these programs.
It was at the close of one of these programs that I called out to God in repentance and in surrender to Him. I watched two programs that evening. With each program came a call to give your life to Jesus Christ. It was at 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday, October 2, 2001, that while I wept, I called out to God in repentance and surrender. I cried out to God. I considered in my head and now very strong in my heart whether or not I could surrender my “self” will and my life to God. I decided, yes, I could, and with my heart I wanted to.
I repented and confessed that I had sinned against God. I recognized that I am a sinner. All of sin is against God. Now I was willing to give up my rebellion toward God. I was willing to give up my own “self” desires and I gave my life to God. I made a true commitment to follow and serve Jesus for the rest of my life. I wept for about two and a half hours, which was a miracle, since for many years I had been unable to cry. God gave me back my tears that night. I finally fell asleep,
As I wept and called out to God, I literally felt the Holy Spirit enter my body. That very night, my body became a temple where the Holy Spirit now dwells.
My spirit was regenerated (it was quickened – made alive) and I was changed overnight, the difference was like night and day. I became a new creature in Christ. I was born again in Jesus Christ. I woke up on Tuesday morning experiencing this wonderful sense of peace. The peace that passes all understanding.
God called the darkness “night” and the light He called “day.” The difference: I had now come into the light of day. I had entered into that “right” relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Jesus is my very righteousness. I had surrendered and made the unending commitment to follow and serve Jesus for the rest of my life.
I sensed that Jesus had accepted my act of repentance. Not with total understanding at that moment, but, in truth, I had now literally become a “new creation” in Jesus Christ. I was born again. I had a physical birth and now I experienced a spiritual birth. I was cleansed and had become reconciled to God through the blood sacrifice of Jesus the Christ. I had entered into an intimate personal relationship with Jesus. I was now finally in a right relationship with God.
2 Corinthians 5:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ.
This was and always will be the very best day of my life. I was 56 years old when God called me to Himself and I responded by surrendering my life to Him. Putting God at the very center of my life instead of self. Throughout the next few weeks I thought about what was different with this response from the response as a teenager. The word SURRENDER kept coming to mind. I surrendered to God. I ended my sinful and selfish rebellion toward God.
That day I was enabled to hear and to recognize the voice of God speak within me. What a marvelous thing to be indwelled by the Holy Spirit and have him as your guide, your teacher, leading you into all truth, one who will be with you forever. I continue to yield myself to the Holy Spirit as He does His work to transform and mold me more and more into the likeness of Jesus.
A hunger for the Word of God and its truth was awakened in me. I wanted to stay in the awesome state I was in. For a good number of weeks, I did not want to leave my home. I just wanted to be near Jesus, be absorbed in God’s Word, and be in continual communion with Him. I did not want to watch TV. Awakened in me was a strong hunger for God and His Word.
I was literally afraid to go out among people because I was afraid, somehow, I would lose what I had just gained. I did not want to lose my relationship with Jesus. I need Jesus each and every day of my life. All of us need Jesus each and every day of our lives.
Ephesians 1:13 13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise
I know that my spirit and soul are sealed and I will spend eternity in the presence of God as part of the Kingdom of God.
Personal Testimony of
Dorothy von Lehe
2024