Hi there! I'm Sarah: stay-at-home army wife & mom of two precious little ones {one here & one in Heaven}, starving artist & {most important of all!} lover of Jesus Christ & Bible enthusiast. My family and I are currently stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, and we belong to Edgewood Baptist Church.
But more about Jesus- Before I met Him I was a lost in my own sin, wandering around doing {God knows!} what. But praise be to Him for John 3:16- for giving me a new heart & fresh start at real life. Now He is my ultimate passion & His glory is my goal.
While I myself am a far-from-perfect work in progress, I lift up my {humble} works to Him. And since my love for art was a free gift from the Creator, all profits from my sales are given to the cause of spreading His life-saving Gospel. That being said, I'm so grateful for my customers and supporters, thank you!
But if all of this Jesus-talk is Greek to you {I've been there, trust me!}, ask Him to give you His Spirit so that you might know Him too {Luke 11:13}. All it takes is a humble heart of repentence, so please don't hesitate. Can you guess what command God gives us in His Word more than any other? "Do not fear" {Isaiah 41:10}. He's a good and gracious Savior, He loves you and He's longing to be reconciled to you- to freely give you complete forgiveness, acceptance, and eternal life, if you'll just turn back to him. If you want to know more, keep reading to see just how He did it for me!
My Testimony
My Testimony
"For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." {John 3:16}
First and foremost, loving and following Jesus has been the absolute best thing in my life. He’s the one person I need & delight in more than anyone or anything else. Sadly, I spent many years not understanding Him. But praise be to Him for His unfailing patience, even before I knew Him He was working behind the scenes of my life...
I grew up going to a Protestant church, which is where I learned a lot about who Jesus is and what the Bible says about Him. And that left me with the unsettling impression that I could never be good enough to truly live the Christian life. So that was discouraging- to hear how to live life the right way, but not be able to do it for any length of time or with any amount of success or assurance.
And then there were all of the natural questions- is the Bible really true? Is Jesus really God like He said He is? How do we know we can trust it all? I wavered between doubt and discouragement for a long time, and only later did I realize why it was such a struggle- I didn't have a personal relationship with Him, I was still lost.
It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college during a simple Bible study with my best friend that Jesus “flipped the switch” for me. The two of us were reading through the book of Mathew, and the only way I can describe it is that all of a sudden I could finally see Jesus for who He really is- a friend, a helper, a loving Savior. After all the years of observing Christianity from the outside, I finally met Him personally and felt like part of His family. In that moment He gave me His light and His peace- His Holy Spirit- and I’ve never been the same since.
Suddenly I had a desire to read the Bible and for the first time it actually made sense to me! So I immediately went out and bought a new study Bible. It was all I wanted to read, I couldn't get enough of it. And that was the start of my true relationship with Christ.
Let me just pause to say praise God! I don’t know why He saved me in college {years after I first started going to church regularly!}- surely much of it was my own pride and reluctance to hold onto my sin- but I can say with 100% certainty that it was all of His doing and none of mine. A true gift of undeserved, unmerited grace.
So, any time I spent trying to live a "right" life before meeting Jesus was pointless. I didn’t understand that I needed His Spirit before there could be even one ounce of change in me.
Now, about eight years later, I'm so thankful to Him that He's still walking with me patiently. He's taught me and grown me so much and I have nothing but gratitude for His amazing grace. And on top of fulfilling my most desperate need of salvation, He's blessed me with a Godly husband who I love and respect with all my heart, and a precious son who I adore! And because of His unfailing goodness and sovereignty, I delight in the sweet baby we lost. His peace abides even in the midst of deep sorrow.
He’s faithfully lead me in each {faltering} step in the Christian life. He taught me to study His Word, to pray, to listen for His voice, to see my own sin for what it really is, to loathe it and to repent of it. It’s still a struggle, but unlike before I’m free to actually move in the right direction with His help, to not be totally enslaved to my old desires.
And it’s the same for you. Any amount of positive change you try to make in your life is in vain without the Holy Spirit. You may be able to change your habits and behaviors for a little while, "do better" at this or that, justify your sin by comparing yourselves to those that you think are worse. Or you may even assume you don't have any sin to repent of, that the only person you'll ever have to answer to is yourself. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but it's end is the way of death" {Proverbs 14:12}.
You and I fit in one of two categories: 1) redeemed by Christ for eternal life with God or 2) unredeemed and sentenced to eternal Hell as the just and lawful reward our of deeds. Praise God that there's a chance for all of us to cross over in that first category. But until you surrender to Christ and receive a new heart {Ezekial 18:31}, you’re in the second.
The crazy thing is that you truly can’t do a single good, lasting thing without Him. Every act of our own "righteousness" is but a filthy rag in His sight {Isaiah 64:6}. This is the opposite of what the world teaches us. The world tells us we're "good", that we've earned the right to be proud and independent people. A close variation of the very same lie that Satan sold to Eve in the very beginning {and it's no wonder, Satan still rules this world}. The truth is you can’t save yourself, and we all need to be saved. You can’t even desire to do what’s right with totally pure motives.
So here’s the bottom line- you need a saving relationship with Jesus, one characterized by love and obediance to His Word. And to have that, you need the Holy Spirit. Jesus says to ask for it, to seek it, to “knock” on the door for it, to be persistent {Luke 11:9-10}. He says that if we, being sinful, can give good gifts to our children, “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” {Luke 11:13}.
If you want to be reconciled to God, just take a step of faith and tell Jesus that you can’t do it without Him. If you want to be free of guilt and condemnation, confess your sins and ask Him to save you. Be persistent and don't give up!
First and foremost, loving and following Jesus has been the absolute best thing in my life. He’s the one person I need & delight in more than anyone or anything else. Sadly, I spent many years not understanding Him. But praise be to Him for His unfailing patience, even before I knew Him He was working behind the scenes of my life...
I grew up going to a Protestant church, which is where I learned a lot about who Jesus is and what the Bible says about Him. And that left me with the unsettling impression that I could never be good enough to truly live the Christian life. So that was discouraging- to hear how to live life the right way, but not be able to do it for any length of time or with any amount of success or assurance.
And then there were all of the natural questions- is the Bible really true? Is Jesus really God like He said He is? How do we know we can trust it all? I wavered between doubt and discouragement for a long time, and only later did I realize why it was such a struggle- I didn't have a personal relationship with Him, I was still lost.
It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college during a simple Bible study with my best friend that Jesus “flipped the switch” for me. The two of us were reading through the book of Mathew, and the only way I can describe it is that all of a sudden I could finally see Jesus for who He really is- a friend, a helper, a loving Savior. After all the years of observing Christianity from the outside, I finally met Him personally and felt like part of His family. In that moment He gave me His light and His peace- His Holy Spirit- and I’ve never been the same since.
Suddenly I had a desire to read the Bible and for the first time it actually made sense to me! So I immediately went out and bought a new study Bible. It was all I wanted to read, I couldn't get enough of it. And that was the start of my true relationship with Christ.
Let me just pause to say praise God! I don’t know why He saved me in college {years after I first started going to church regularly!}- surely much of it was my own pride and reluctance to hold onto my sin- but I can say with 100% certainty that it was all of His doing and none of mine. A true gift of undeserved, unmerited grace.
So, any time I spent trying to live a "right" life before meeting Jesus was pointless. I didn’t understand that I needed His Spirit before there could be even one ounce of change in me.
Now, about eight years later, I'm so thankful to Him that He's still walking with me patiently. He's taught me and grown me so much and I have nothing but gratitude for His amazing grace. And on top of fulfilling my most desperate need of salvation, He's blessed me with a Godly husband who I love and respect with all my heart, and a precious son who I adore! And because of His unfailing goodness and sovereignty, I delight in the sweet baby we lost. His peace abides even in the midst of deep sorrow.
He’s faithfully lead me in each {faltering} step in the Christian life. He taught me to study His Word, to pray, to listen for His voice, to see my own sin for what it really is, to loathe it and to repent of it. It’s still a struggle, but unlike before I’m free to actually move in the right direction with His help, to not be totally enslaved to my old desires.
And it’s the same for you. Any amount of positive change you try to make in your life is in vain without the Holy Spirit. You may be able to change your habits and behaviors for a little while, "do better" at this or that, justify your sin by comparing yourselves to those that you think are worse. Or you may even assume you don't have any sin to repent of, that the only person you'll ever have to answer to is yourself. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but it's end is the way of death" {Proverbs 14:12}.
You and I fit in one of two categories: 1) redeemed by Christ for eternal life with God or 2) unredeemed and sentenced to eternal Hell as the just and lawful reward our of deeds. Praise God that there's a chance for all of us to cross over in that first category. But until you surrender to Christ and receive a new heart {Ezekial 18:31}, you’re in the second.
The crazy thing is that you truly can’t do a single good, lasting thing without Him. Every act of our own "righteousness" is but a filthy rag in His sight {Isaiah 64:6}. This is the opposite of what the world teaches us. The world tells us we're "good", that we've earned the right to be proud and independent people. A close variation of the very same lie that Satan sold to Eve in the very beginning {and it's no wonder, Satan still rules this world}. The truth is you can’t save yourself, and we all need to be saved. You can’t even desire to do what’s right with totally pure motives.
So here’s the bottom line- you need a saving relationship with Jesus, one characterized by love and obediance to His Word. And to have that, you need the Holy Spirit. Jesus says to ask for it, to seek it, to “knock” on the door for it, to be persistent {Luke 11:9-10}. He says that if we, being sinful, can give good gifts to our children, “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” {Luke 11:13}.
If you want to be reconciled to God, just take a step of faith and tell Jesus that you can’t do it without Him. If you want to be free of guilt and condemnation, confess your sins and ask Him to save you. Be persistent and don't give up!
If you want to become a Christian and have questions, I'm here to help! {sarahkeller1@gmail.com} I'm just a humble servant with a long way to go on my own journey, but I rejoice in any and every opportunity to point others to the amazing love of Christ.
I love you and I'm praying for you!
~Sarah
I love you and I'm praying for you!
~Sarah
