E
ellisbrasher
Guest
TESTIMONY OF ELLIS BRASHER, RUSK, TX
Like many youngsters I walked the aisle, joined the church and was baptized as an early teenager. I had no knowledge or understanding that true salvation does indeed involve more than just simply doing something dutiful that I had heard and read about.
Not knowing any better I was satisfied with my perceived salvation and then at about 18-19 years old I began drinking and then in 1962 I wound up in AA at the age of 29 and even then I still thought that years before I had completed my required functions as a Christian and was a saved person.
At this time in my life I had only a small knowledge of the Holy Spirit and had never experienced the feeling of His work. I had no idea that a person is only saved at the urging of the Holy Spirit.
I may have at one time or another read the below Bible verses, but apparently they did not sink in my young brain.
MATTHEW 18:20 “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
JOHN 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
I now realize at that point in my life I was not saved and would not be until many years later.
In 1968 a workmate friend may have sensed that I was not saved and started witnessing to me about salvation, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and many other aspects of true belief. A feeling came over me that I had never experienced before in my life. It was as if you want to rejoice and/or cry at the same time. My friend sensed what was happening and remarked “Ellis, I believe the Holy Spirit is speaking to you right now”. I was confused and simply replied that I did not know what he was talking about. Well, I never forgot that experience and I began to realize that sooner or later I was going to have to do something about it.
I carried that experience in the back of my mind some 25 years and then one day I asked my wife if she would like for us to start going to church, she replied, “Yes, I thought you would never ask”. We both started going to Eastside Baptist in Rusk, TX where we were warmly welcomed and in a short while we both moved our memberships there.
But I still felt that I needed to do something, but was filled with confusion and anxiety wondering what to do even though on several other occasions I felt the presence and urging of the Holy Spirit.
Then sometime later, lo and behold, a man walked the aisle with a story similar to mine apparently confessing his pent up belief and faith in Jesus Christ and wanting to be baptized which he was a few days later.
I then realized what I had seen was what I needed to do; so at the next service where I felt that urge I walked down the aisle, told the basics of this story and was baptized a few days later.
Now, this does not mean that I or other saved Christians would never sin again; we sin and fall short of the glory of God every day, but the work of Jesus Christ on the cross was and is sufficient for all past, present and future sins of a saved believer.
1 JOHN 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
At one time I struggled about the idea that many propose that the Bible can’t be proven as “cold hard fact”. A lady friend, church member cleared that up for me with this remark, “The Bible and salvation are about FAITH; if they were about cold hard fact, there would be no room or reason for faith.”
31 "So Moses went back to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold.
32 Yet now, please forgive their sin-but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”
Even so, the child has a one-way ticket to hell EXCEPT for two circumstances as below:
Like many youngsters I walked the aisle, joined the church and was baptized as an early teenager. I had no knowledge or understanding that true salvation does indeed involve more than just simply doing something dutiful that I had heard and read about.
Not knowing any better I was satisfied with my perceived salvation and then at about 18-19 years old I began drinking and then in 1962 I wound up in AA at the age of 29 and even then I still thought that years before I had completed my required functions as a Christian and was a saved person.
At this time in my life I had only a small knowledge of the Holy Spirit and had never experienced the feeling of His work. I had no idea that a person is only saved at the urging of the Holy Spirit.
I may have at one time or another read the below Bible verses, but apparently they did not sink in my young brain.
MATTHEW 18:20 “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
JOHN 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Code:
The last of the above verses unequivocally states that a person is only saved at the urging of the Holy Spirit and which is the Holy Spirit of the Father.In 1968 a workmate friend may have sensed that I was not saved and started witnessing to me about salvation, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and many other aspects of true belief. A feeling came over me that I had never experienced before in my life. It was as if you want to rejoice and/or cry at the same time. My friend sensed what was happening and remarked “Ellis, I believe the Holy Spirit is speaking to you right now”. I was confused and simply replied that I did not know what he was talking about. Well, I never forgot that experience and I began to realize that sooner or later I was going to have to do something about it.
I carried that experience in the back of my mind some 25 years and then one day I asked my wife if she would like for us to start going to church, she replied, “Yes, I thought you would never ask”. We both started going to Eastside Baptist in Rusk, TX where we were warmly welcomed and in a short while we both moved our memberships there.
But I still felt that I needed to do something, but was filled with confusion and anxiety wondering what to do even though on several other occasions I felt the presence and urging of the Holy Spirit.
Then sometime later, lo and behold, a man walked the aisle with a story similar to mine apparently confessing his pent up belief and faith in Jesus Christ and wanting to be baptized which he was a few days later.
I then realized what I had seen was what I needed to do; so at the next service where I felt that urge I walked down the aisle, told the basics of this story and was baptized a few days later.
Now, this does not mean that I or other saved Christians would never sin again; we sin and fall short of the glory of God every day, but the work of Jesus Christ on the cross was and is sufficient for all past, present and future sins of a saved believer.
1 JOHN 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
At one time I struggled about the idea that many propose that the Bible can’t be proven as “cold hard fact”. A lady friend, church member cleared that up for me with this remark, “The Bible and salvation are about FAITH; if they were about cold hard fact, there would be no room or reason for faith.”
Code:
In the past 10-12 years I have spent considerable time reading and studying the Bible and have reached the following conclusions: When a child is born he/she is recorded in God's Book of Life as per Exodus 32:31&32.32 Yet now, please forgive their sin-but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”
Even so, the child has a one-way ticket to hell EXCEPT for two circumstances as below:
- The child/person dies before achieving the knowledge of accountability.
- At some age and ONLY at the urging/prompting of the Holy Spirit the person accepts and confesses Jesus Christ as personal Savior at which time his/her name is recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life and can never be blotted out.
REV. 3:5 "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
REV. Chapter 13 speaks of the “beast” which is symbolic of the “antichrist” and significant is verse 8.
REV. 13:8 “All who dwell upon the earth will worship him, whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This verse indicates that people’s names are entered in the Lambs Book during their life and when would be a more logical time than at the time they accept Jesus Christ.
REV. 21:27 “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”
Note; if the person dies after achieving accountability and before accepting/confessing Jesus Christ; the name is blotted from God’s Book of Life.
REV. 20:15 “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”
God’s plan of salvation for mankind was preordained perhaps “forever ago” the plan calling for a '“Perfect Sacrifice” for the redemption of sin with the sacrifice being his only Son, namely Jesus Christ born sin free of the Virgin Mary. (Edited to remove e-mail address)
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