My parents had us in church every Sunday, every Wednesday. It was more of a tradition at that point; I didn't have a personal relationship with the Lord until I went to the altar call one Sunday, and the youth pastor told us to make a decision for ourselves.
The Lord saved my soul.
The revealed Word awakened me, but it was the preached Word that saved me, and I must ever attach peculiar value to the hearing of the truth, for by it I received the joy and peace in which my soul delights.
Like a hero in a dream, Christ came and He rescued me.
Many biblical passages teach that we're not saved by our own efforts but by the grace of God alone. But the same passages also tell us good works are an essential evidence of the salvation experience. We're not saved by good works, but for good works. It begins with God's grace, and it's sustained by his grace as you shape your character by what you do as you cross the bridge.
We were old sinners - but when we came to Christ we are not sinners anymore.
I thought I could have leaped from earth to heaven at one spring when I first saw my sins drowned in the Redeemer's blood.
The Christianity that saves is a thing personally grasped, personally experienced, personally felt and personally possessed.
