Happy (Spiritual) Birthday!

Twelve years ago today, a wonderful woman named Lorraine Holt took me out to lunch to talk to me about becoming a CEF 5-day club leader for the summer. During the conversation, she noticed that I had not yet made a decision to live for Christ, so she pulled out the Wordless Book - a tool CEF leaders use to explain the gospel to young children.

She told me about God's holiness and heaven using the gold page. Then she turned to the dark page and talked about sin, the devil, and a place called hell. She must have noticed a puzzled look on my face. See, I didn't believe in the devil or in hell. My whole life, the argument for their existent had been the necessity of a counterpart to God and heaven and I simply didn't like that argument.

Lorraine asked me, "Do you have a question?" This is where I paused. I was curious about her beliefs and those of the other members of the church I had been attending with my host family. But I considered simply sneaking my way into the training program for the summer leaders and finding out then. That's when the Holy Spirit clearly stirred in my heart: "No, ask her right now!"

"I don't really believe in the devil and in hell," I told Lorraine.

"But the Bible says so," she said and that was all the argument it took to convince me because - somehow - I have always believed in the authority of Scripture.

Lorraine went on to talk about Christ's sacrifice on the cross for us using the red page. I had known my whole life that Christ died for our sins but it finally made sense why He had to! Why would He have to die if not to save us from the punishment we deserve in our sin? In my spiritual blindness, I had never before asked that question.

She turned to the clean page and told me about how I could be right with God and be forgiven for my sin. We went out to her car to pray. With my limited English knowledge I don't think I realized what we were about to pray for. But as I repeated after Lorraine, I meant every word. I asked God to forgive me for my sins and asked Him to become the ruler of my life.

After a big hug, Lorraine drove me home. I went to my bedroom and prayed the prayer again in my own words. Lorraine had told me to write that day's date in my Bible: February 7th, 2000. Because I wasn't yet sure what had just happened and if it would be permanent, I was looking for a pencil. After all, if something would change in a day or so, I could just erase the date. However, though I clearly remembered seeing a pencil next to my bed early that day, I could only find a pen. Once again that day, I heard the Holy Spirit assure me: "Go ahead and write the date in pen. This change is permanent."

Praise God, who saves our souls and changes our lives for good! I love celebrating my spiritual birthday every year and remembering His forgiveness, His giving me life and adopting me as a daughter into His family. 

Praise God with me today and be someone else's Lorraine Holt!