Jesse Klein — I was blessed to be raised in a home that feared the Lord God and respected His Word, the Bible. My parents regularly took us to the meetings at the Arlington Gospel Hall. I knew from very young that I was a sinner on my way to hell. Many times I heard the good news of salvation through the finished work of Christ on the cross. When I was eight years old I was troubled about my soul. I stayed behind after a gospel meeting and spoke with one of the preachers, Mr. Goff. We read several verses together and finally we read Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Then he gave me a pen and said that this pen was a gift from him to me.” He asked “How much did that pen cost you?” “Nothing,” I said. “How much did that pen cost me?” he asked.
As I thought about those questions he told me that the pen was just an illustration of what God has done for us. He is offering salvation as a free gift. It doesn’t cost us anything, It’s a gift not a prize. But It did cost God a lot, the life of His only Son Jesus. Jesus gave His life on the cross to pay what we owed and could not pay, death. He gave His life so He could give life to us as a free gift through trusting Him. I went home that night thinking about what Mr. Goff and I talked about but as the days went by I soon brushed my troubles off. Then, again, when I was ten I started to be troubled about my soul. I heard of a boy of nine years of age who had drowned in the river. We lived next to the river and I had played down there many times. I would think of how if I would have drowned when I was nine I knew I would be in hell right now. Several weeks went by but I could not find peace.
Finally one night I decided that I have to be saved tonight. Our parents put us to bed but I could not sleep. My brother and I shared a room, he slept on the bottom bunk and I slept on the top. Once he was asleep I got my Bible and a flashlight, pulled the covers over my head and started to read. First I read many of the verses that I had read in Sunday school. then I just started reading around. I asked God to show me what He wanted me to do. I looked and looked all over in His Word hoping to find something that I could do to earn His salvation. I told Him I would save up all my money and give it to Him, I just needed to know how much, I told Him I would go anywhere in the world for Him, I just needed to know where. As I frantically searched for any sign of what I could do to be saved I started to get discouraged. I couldn’t find anything in the Bible that told me to DO anything or PAY any amount in order to deserve God’s salvation.
As I sat there in bed quickly losing all hope, I thought of the example of the pen and many other illustrations I had heard. Finally as I talked with God in prayer I told Him that I had tried all I could and it didn’t make sense to me. He obviously didn’t want me to go to heaven because I couldn’t find any way to be saved. I said, “I guess I will just have to go to hell because that is the only thing I deserved.” I closed the Bible but then remembered the verse “God wants everyone to be saved and understand the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). I told God that I want to be saved but don’t know how, and that I need Him to show me what to do. I flipped the Bible open and the first verse I read was Psalms 46:10,
“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen,
I will be exalted in the earth.” –Psalm 46:10
Right then I realized that God isn’t asking me to DO anything, but to simply be still, and trust Him. Know that He is God, the all powerful one, the One that has already taken care of my problem long before I knew I had a problem. That night I understood that even though I was a sinner who deserved to be sent to hell not because of what I had done but because of who I was, a sinner, Jesus died for me. He was perfect and did not deserve to die but He chose to give His life for those that deserve death, me. When He was on the cross He took my sin on Himself and paid everything I deserved to pay and was now offering me that free gift of eternal life. That night on the 27th of November 1997, I thanked God for saving me even though I didn’t, and still don’t deserve it.
Emily Klein — When I was eight years old, I made a decision that changed my life. By the grace of God, He showed me that I was a guilty sinner in desperate need of forgiveness. Growing up, I learned through the faithful teaching of His Word by gospel preachers and my Sunday school teachers that God desires to have a personal relationship with us. I learned that we are naturally born sinners which makes us unfit to be in His holy presence. When I was young, I thought I really wasn’t “that bad” and tried to gain God’s favor by being good. There came a moment in my life that I realized I really wasn’t good enough and never would be to gain a relationship with Him on my own. For many years, I was severely scared of the dark and fearful of dying. I knew that the Bible says that the payment for sin is death and that God has provided the gift of salvation through the death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I knew that if I repented and believed Him, He would forgive me of my sins and give me eternal life. I struggled for so long trying to believe hard enough, but in doing so I was still relying on my own efforts to be good enough.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.” –John 3:16
One afternoon, I talked with my mom about it and we read many verses together that I had memorized. She walked me through John 3:16 and asked me to read it with my name in it. So I read it like this: For God so loved “Emily” that he gave his only begotten Son, that “if Emily” believes in him, “Emily” should not perish, but have everlasting life. I thought about what it meant and prayed to God that He would forgive me and save me from my sins. I finally rested in what God said and accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior — accepting that the payment was made in full by Christ and I could trust Him and His promises. God touched my heart and gave me peace with Him and I knew without a shadow of doubt that He forgave me of my sins.
Do you want the peace we now enjoy? God is waiting for you too. He wants to give you peace and purpose. Will you ask Him to forgive you for your sins from the past, present and the future, and enjoy a new life with purpose? Learn More Here
“The one that comes to Me I will in no means cast out.”
–John 6:37.
We were commended to the full-time work of the Lord in Mexico in September of 2011 by the assembly that meets in Arlington, WA, USA. Currently, we live in Santiago Ixcuintla, Nayarit, and continue to be involved in gospel outreach, Bible teaching, children’s work, and Bible studies with the local assembly here, in Tepic (an hour away), and other surrounding areas. In years past, we have been heavily involved in building projects and maintenance for a few assemblies throughout Mexico.
The Lord is forever gracious and we have been encouraged to see the Lord’s hand working in our own lives and in the lives of many others. Please pray for us and the work of the Lord here in Mexico!
We have prayed earnestly about how we can best serve the Lord’s people and with His guidance and direction, over the last four years we have begun to plan for and work towards building a Discipleship and Trades School Program. With the help of the Lord, we hope to invite two to three young Spanish speaking brothers in Christ from around Mexico to live with us for a few months to a year as we disciple them according to Mathew 28:19. We would be involving them in local outreach work, daily Bible study and meditating, and we would give them an opportunity to learn a few trades (welding/fabrication, plumbing, electrical, framing and drywall, concrete work, etc.). With the Lord’s blessing and in His timing, we hope that this school will encourage and ground our young believers in God’s Word; giving them spiritual stability. We also hope that learning a trade will give them some economic stability in their work so that when they return to their homes they can be stable in their jobs, their families and in their local assemblies as well. We trust that the Lord will use them to take the gospel and New Testament doctrine to places we could never reach alone.
