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Ron Berquist ~ Cleveland, Ohio Print E-mail

           When I was a child, my parents persuaded us to attend Sunday School. However, I do not recall ever hearing the true gospel of the grace of God until much later in life. I went to a Sunday School that did not teach a person could be saved and know it.

            As a young person, I wanted no part of religion. Instead, I looked for all the excitement and passing pleasure I could find. Whenever I thought about God, I wondered if He even existed.

            At the same time, there was much in the world I could not understand. Wars, riots, murders, adulteries were committed openly without seemingly any judgment from Heaven. This puzzled me and whenever I searched for answers in the Bible, I only became more confused. In time, I lost interest in these things and yet lived with a hidden fear that there was a real God.

            One night, I drank too much and got arrested for driving while intoxicated. I spent the night in jail. This was my wake-up call to take a closer look at my life. I began to see I was wasting my life and I was living without meaning. I needed something firm to stand on.

            As I thought about God and the purpose of my life I wondered, “what value am I to the Creator?”

            While reading the Bible and using the book “Good News For Modern Man” as a reference, I learned I was a sinner on the way to hell. This was a very personal concern between God and me. All things appeared hopeless, and that made me weep. The fear of death entered my life and I spent many sleepless nights listening to my heart beat. At times it sounded like it was going to explode. I realized I needed help. Once more I went to the Bible even though I was hesitant because it always brought conviction upon me. While in a state of desperation, I found hope in one word. That word was “awake” in Romans 13:11. I saw that God was trying to tell me there was a way out of my sinful state.

            I determined to attend a church where they taught directly from the Word of God. As I prayed for guidance, God answered by bringing me into contact with an old friend who had himself been saved a few years earlier. He explained God’s wonderful plan of salvation from the Scriptures. He asked me to accompany him on a short trip to New Philadelphia, Ohio to visit his brother who had recently come to know Christ as His Savior. His brother showed me a chart called “The Two Roads and the Two Destinies.” That night, I saw that Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners. As I looked at the door on the chart, illustrating that Christ is the only Door to Heaven (John 10:9), I trusted Him as my own personal Savior. Truer words were never spoken, “Jesus saith, I am the way the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).


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