BOOKLET
Becoming a New Creation Through Jesus
We are called to be witnesses for Jesus. In these writings I am including personal testimony of the path I have walked with Jesus beginning with God’s steps in my becoming born again in Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths
During my childhood and youth, I was raised attending Sunday School and Church. I do not remember a time in my life when I did not believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I believed that He died on the cross for man’s sin. I believed He rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven. I believed the facts about Jesus.
When I faithfully went through confirmation classes and I was about to be confirmed, my pastor asked this question: Do you receive Jesus as your Savior? I answered yes. But did I really? I was not sure. Did I know what I was professing? Did I have a heart understanding of what this means? I actually had reservations about what I had answered “yes” to.
I wish to acknowledge and express a special thank you to my then pastor, Pastor Harvey Carlson. He was a faithful man of God, who was an excellent role model living his life as a humble servant of God. He played a very influential role in my life.
Since the time Pastor Carlson asked the question – Do you receive Jesus as your Savior? – and throughout my teenage and adult years, until the age of 56, I had the sense that I was “not right” with God. I sensed, I was not in a right relationship with God.
I tried, on my own terms, to respond to this knowledge. Satan and demons believe these facts about Jesus and they are not and cannot be saved. I had head knowledge. But what was missing was surrender; a surrender of my own “self will.” What was missing was an actual personal relationship with Jesus. I was not walking with Jesus. I was not in a right relationship with God. Somehow, I had some understanding of this admission inside of me.
At the time I married, I informed my husband-to-be, who had been attending church with me often, I told him I believed in Jesus and wanted to be active in church after we married. He agreed this would be okay. After our wedding, we made our home in his hometown in southern Minnesota, where my husband worked for the Green Giant Co. He grew up on a farm. I grew up in St. Paul.
I made a promise to God, or at least in my mind, to go to church and raise our children as church goers. I made sure to join a church of the same Synod. We have three children. They were raised attending Sunday School and each of them was baptized and confirmed. I became a member and attended this church regularly. I served as a Sunday School teacher, as Sunday School superintendent and even for a period of time as a Church Council member. I was also active on service groups.
For all of the 26 years of membership in this church, I sensed in my heart, I was not in a right relationship with God. I am certain it was the Holy Spirit reminding me of this. I kept saying: “I must get right with God before I die.” Did I even understood what this meant, to be in a right relationship with God?
My son, who became a believer and follower of Jesus, tried to point out in his humble way the shortcomings of this church. Throughout the years, I felt it was too social and not spiritual.
I do not believe I grew spiritually in this church. After my youngest daughter finished high school and went off to college, I decided to leave this church. My intention was to look for what I needed spiritually. Well, for about seven years, I did not search for another church nor did I attend church.
Everyone who has repented and given their life to Jesus Christ, I believe, recognizes through their own experience that it is the Holy Spirit who works to draw a person to Jesus Christ. God first calls you to Himself. Then, the Holy Spirit awakens you to your need for a Savior and enables you to come to a point of repentance with a desire to surrender to God.
It is important to understand that each of us is born with the desire to sin. This is referred to as a sinful nature that we have all inherited from “Adam and Eve.” Because of the bondage of this desire to sin, we are not capable of coming to God on our own. The Holy Spirit is essential in this process. The Holy Spirit must draw a person to Christ and prepare (enable) the person to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
God has His way of drawing people to Jesus Christ. God calls you to Himself. He calls your name. You may not realize God is calling out to you. He called out my name, Dorothy, in an audible way in March of 2001. The Holy Spirit works on you to draw you to Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit enables you to see your need for Jesus and to respond to this need.
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 seemed 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 the number of people coming to church. Many became concerned with 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 I could or not 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,
Holy Spirit entered my body
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 never ending 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 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 C. von Lehe