This past Sunday evening I (Pastor Tanner) preached a sermon titled “A Gospel Reminder” from  1 Corinthians 15:1-11. In the sermon we answered these three questions: What is the gospel? How does it functions? How do we respond to it? On Monday evening I received a text from Deanne Mills about that sermon, expressing her appreciation for the gospel because of how God saved her through the gospel. I asked her to write out her testimony for this week’s MDWK article. Here is Mrs. Deanne’s testimony:

“When I was five years old, I was in a Sunday School class at the Methodist Church that our parents were faithful to.  My teacher had a big flannel graph board in which she put a scale with two buckets (like our VBS scale).  She put “good works” in one of the buckets and “bad works” in the other.  Then she proceeded to explain and show that if your “good works” outweigh your “bad works”, you will go to Heaven.  Then she said, “BUT, if your bad works outweigh your good works, you will go to Hell.”  We lived on a farm so after that each day when the sun went down, I knew I hadn’t been “good enough” to go to Heaven.  So for five years this was my thought at night. Sometimes during the night, I’d cry out; and my mother would come in to comfort me.  I didn’t want to tell her that I was a bad girl going to hell because I knew she thought I was basically a good girl. So for five years, I lived in fear of my bad works and Hell even though I tried to be good!  But I always knew I wasn’t good enough!  

Then when I was ten years old, my cousin, Pat Olson, spent a Saturday night with us.  The next day, Sunday, as we were driving into town, my cousin asked my dad if my sister and I could go to church with her.  My Uncle Oscar (her dad) had previously been saved and had started going to the Bible Baptist Church in Russell, KS.  Much to my surprise and to God’s plan for my life, my dad agreed to it and dropped us off at the church.  Pastor Frank Fotoplos preached a message about salvation and how Jesus died on the cross for my sins.  The very first time I ever heard the Gospel!  I was too shy to go forward in church; but as soon as I got home, I went into my bedroom, knelt down by my bed, and asked Jesus to come into my heart, forgive me for all of my sins, and save me.  Since that day, I’ve known that nothing I do is worthy of Heaven; but that it’s the blood of Jesus that forgives my sins.  I’ve been so thankful for the Gospel the past 72 years since that day!  

I was so excited about receiving Christ as my Savior, that the next day at my country school I was telling everyone who would listen about Jesus and what He had done.  One of the ones who was interested was a school board member’s daughter.  Shortly after, my sister and I were called in at recess to meet with my teacher and my sister’s teacher.  We were told that we were NOT to talk about it anymore at school.  To keep our religion to ourselves.  Since I was taught to always respect my elders, the devil used that for a while to make me afraid to tell others.  Even back then he was keeping people from hearing!  

Another important thing that happened after that was my first experience at a Christian camp.  My counselor wrote in my autograph book (a thing that was popular in the 1950’s) this quote:  “Only one life t’will soon be past.  Only what’s done for Christ will last.”  So those two things have been my mainstay all of these years!  Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul and making me whole!  Thank you for the Gospel!”