I Didn't Want to Be Left Behind

Donna grew up going to church every time the doors were open. But instead of it drawing her closer to God, she was stuck in a system of religious performance that kept Him just out of reach. Hear the story of how God saved her, plus an honest discussion about the illusion of salvation that persists in many church circles, and what we can do about it.

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Snapshot Testimony podcast. I'm your host, Ali Domercant.
In this podcast, I ask my guests to share one
pivotal moment that helped shape their faith in Christ. In
this episode, you'll meet Donna, a pastor's wife who has
spent her entire life in church. When I say entire life,
she grew up going to Sunday school, morning and evening services,

(00:21):
mid-week prayer, Bible study. When the church was open, she
was there. She knew the Bible verses and how to
look good in church, but she really didn't have a
relationship with Jesus until she watched a movie that woke
her up to the reality of her spiritual condition. I
know so many will be able to relate to this story.
We'll also talk about the illusion of salvation and what

(00:42):
we can do to debunk the myths around what it
means to be saved. Here's a snapshot testimony from Donna.

S2 (00:53):
My mom met my dad in the church, and so we.
I can never remember a life not being in church?
We went to all of the services in my church.
There was Sunday school, a morning service and then a
break in between an evening service. And that was just Sunday.

(01:17):
And there was also prayer meeting and Bible study. However,
going to going to church doesn't make you have a
relationship with God. So you said there's.

S1 (01:30):
A difference between being in the church and actually being
in Christ. When did you realize that those weren't the
same thing?

S2 (01:39):
It was at a retreat and I went for the
wrong reasons. I had heard that there would be boys there.
We would have there. We would we would be able
to swim back in the day. They used to have
these rapture movies where they would show, um, the second

(02:00):
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and some people would
be taken to heaven and there would be some that
would be left, and it just touched my heart like
I could, because they showed clips of people being in church, um,
and some were taken and some were left. And it

(02:23):
was just at that time where I decided to look.
I don't I don't want to go to hell. I
want to, I want to I want to be with Christ.
I can remember, uh, going to the altar and, um,
giving my life to Christ.

S1 (02:37):
Now, when you were confronted with the reality that I
don't know that I'm in Christ and kind of that whole.
Will I be left behind? What did you have to do? What?
What changed things for you?

S2 (02:54):
Not really. Understanding repentance was more than just saying I'm sorry.
More than just crying and tears, but it was actually like, hey,
I'm making up my mind to follow after God. I
think I always made it so hard in my mind.

(03:16):
I just thought it was so hard to get to
God that there was so many things that you had
to do, or that you had to be perfect. I
think I had to just relax and say and receive
the grace God had given us for salvation.

S1 (03:34):
Now, when you think about, I know you were young,
but did you notice your life change or what was
different in your life after it was like, okay, now
I'm really in Christ, not just in the church.

S2 (03:51):
Being able to know that I could come to him
for myself. My mother died when we were very young.
I was at the age of 19. She didn't have
a lot of money when she when she passed away,
so she didn't leave us with a lot of money.
But what she left us with was visions of her

(04:12):
faithfulness to God. My dad and my mom divorced. Um,
and when we were very young. And so, uh, having
the vision of never seeing a man spend the night
at our house while she was a single woman, uh,
waking up in the middle of the night, um, and

(04:33):
seeing my mom on her knees with her Bible and
a and a notebook with the quite often a thing
that I did. And so just watching her was one
of the grace. She introduced us to Jesus. I knew
my mom could get a prayer through, uh, but actually

(04:54):
being able to worship God for yourself and having that
private time with him, we were taught very young To
study the scriptures and memorizing of scriptures. And I would
like to encourage any one who's bringing their kids up

(05:15):
in the church to know that it makes a difference
not only what you say, but what you do. Had
that exposure, but then allowing the word to become a
part of your life and being able to walk, you know,
being able to trust him really as your personal Savior,

(05:39):
knowing that God is right here, not some God that's
far off, because I think that's how I saw him
as some God that was far off, but not right here,
present with me, and down through the years that has
cultivated and has meant so much to me.

S1 (06:00):
Now, when you think about just the Western church culture,
This is an epidemic, maybe more than people realize of
being raised in the church, or born into a Christian family,
and kind of assuming that that is what makes you

(06:21):
a Christian. What do you think needs to happen for
that distinction to be made more clear for people?

S2 (06:31):
The stressing of, well, first of all, personal discipleship, you know,
coming alongside someone, what I found down through the years
is that you can't look at someone for their age,
be it young or old, and think that they know.
You can't assume for the longevity that someone's been in

(06:54):
the church that they do know. So, um, actually encouraging
people to have a personal relationship with God and understanding
that the Bible talks about how we can approach God
and that we can come to him boldly. We can
come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may

(07:15):
obtain mercy and grace to help us in our time
of need, and then also letting people know that, um, you, you,
you're going to fall. But it doesn't mean that God
counts you out because you fall or because you make
a mistake. Couldn't. I couldn't grasp that. I know I'm
not perfect. Well, I can't live this. No. Well, none

(07:39):
of us. None of us can live it. So I
think that, um, really understanding or receiving the fact that
this grace is for you and that, uh, it's really
a personal relationship. My mother couldn't live it for me.

(08:01):
It wasn't enough that I, um, went to church every.
You know it. The church had to get in me.
I had to to embrace the word and let the
word become become a doer of the word. Yeah, it
was good. I could quote the books of the Bible, uh,
being able to quote the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd

(08:24):
Psalms and different things of that nature. But I think
at some point that, um, for me, I found that
it became learning how to worship, learning my way to
approach him. I love to sing. And so, um, just
being able to get along with him and, and and

(08:46):
sing has been, um, has saved me. Music even has
saved me. So, yeah, it's a personal relationship.

S1 (08:55):
Thank you so much for hanging with me for this
week's Snapshot Testimony podcast. I hope my conversation with Donna
was as encouraging to you as it was to me.
I'm your host, Ali Hassan, and together we're sharing the
moments that shape a life of faith in Christ. Thanks
for listening.