"For You"

Once when I was very young,

The Good Lord came to me,

In a very quiet place,

In the silence helped me see.

The Christ upon the cross was there,

In agony and pain,

So much blood and suffering,

More than I can explain.

And I heard a voice that said,

I did all this for you,

And tears gushed from my broken heart,

‘Cause what I heard was true.

That vision of the cross to me,

Became what brought the change,

That moment knowing I was saved,

My whole life rearranged.

And I wish that I could say,

That ever since that day,

I have served Him faithfully,

But sadly not the way.

But in and out and up and down,

And many dead end trails,

But every time I faltered,

And through all of my fails,

I came back to the cross you see,

When Jesus took my place,

To humbly confess all my sin,

And to seek His face.

And I hear those words again,

And they still are true,

In spite of my unfaithfulness,

I did all this for you.

O love that sets the captive free,

And bring us home at last,

His grace that evermore will be,

For my present, future, past.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NIV)

One of the best-loved and most-memorized verses in the Bible, it tells us of God’s great love for us and the way of personal salvation. I knew that Jesus died from me and never questioned it. If you asked me if I believed that Jesus died and was raised I would have said yes. So I believed all the right things. But was I saved? No, because I had never really surrendered my life to Jesus, had no personal, ongoing relationship with Him, and had no assurance of going to heaven. That all changed when, as a seventeen year old, I had the experience described in the poem. Jesus did it for me, and that’s what I somehow realized. I couldn’t unsee what my heart saw that day. Being saved is a gift from God that we do not deserve nor can we earn. But we must intentionally receive it and surrender to it. I pray you have.

Lord, help us share the good news of Your love, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Bruce Greene, used by permission. Thanks, Bruce, and God bless you.