As I look back on our lessons, I am amazed at the life God gives us when we surrender our lives to the Lord Jesus and choose to follow Him:

• Without the Lord Jesus, I am a lost sinner.  With him, I am found, I am saved and secure!
• Without the Lord Jesus, my heart is stained and dark with sin.  With him, my heart is pure and clean and He lives in it.
• Without the Lord Jesus, I am stumbling in the dark.  With him, I am walking in the Light!
• Without the Lord Jesus, I do not know my way.  With him, I have a Guide who knows my Way!
• Without the Lord Jesus, I am dead in my sins.  With him, I am alive and have eternal life!
• Without the Lord Jesus, God is my stern Judge.  With him, God is my Heavenly Father!
• Without the Lord Jesus, I have passing friends.  With him, I have a constant Companion!
• Without the Lord Jesus, I am terrified in a storm.  With him, I have a safe Refuge!
• Without the Lord Jesus, I have no peace.  With him, I have peace in all circumstances!
• Without the Lord Jesus, I have momentary pleasures.  With him, I have joy everlasting.
• Without the Lord Jesus, I am in Satan’s hold.  With him, I am free from Satan’s bondage!

With Lord Jesus, I have a loving God, his priceless love, and all his blessings. And I am on my way to heaven!

Then God has given me a purpose for my life.  He says, “Go tell everyone what I have done for you.  I want them to know my tender love for them also and experience all these blessings.”  Obeying Him, I have sent all these wonderful Bible lessons to you, my friend. God’s amazing love is for everyone! Let us tell them “Come, Come to the Lord Jesus! God will give you a blessed life you never imagined possible!”

Prayer: “Dear Lord Jesus, please help me to tell everyone about the good news of Your Gospel and the precious gift of Salvation You give us freely.”

Salvation – being saved – is a free gift from God!  It is not a reward for our good deeds or self-denial. There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn or give God in exchange for our salvation. It is a GIFT we don’t deserve. We are sinners who have been disobedient to God. We don’t deserve anything from Him. Yet God, in His love, has chosen to give it to us. It is called GRACE in the Bible. It is received only through FAITH in the Lord Jesus. There is no other way to get it.

In the Bible, we read:

“It is by GRACE you are saved, through FAITH… not as a result of works.

”This is the simple but wonderful truth of the Gospel!

We rejoice in our salvation. Now, what do we do? How do we live? In the Bible, God says: “I know the plan I have for you.”  Jeremiah 29:11

God has a plan and purpose for our life! Before our salvation, we had our own plans and we were going our own way, living selfishly for ourselves. Now we want to live our new life for Lord Jesus and follow his plan for us. God has lovingly planned a unique life for each of his children. It is not an empty life, it is a fulfilling life, full of good deeds He wants us to do for him. 

What are the good deeds God has for us? Serving God by serving others – like being kind-hearted, loving, and caring, helping people in need, praying for them, telling others about the Lord Jesus and his priceless gift of salvation, etc. The Lord Jesus will lead us along the way and the Holy Spirit will show us how to follow him. All the blessings God has for us will be found only along this path as we follow the Lord. Bible tells us: “God has created us in Christ Jesus to do all the good works which He has already planned for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 

My dear friend, as we rejoice in our salvation, let us eagerly pray and find out all the good deeds God is calling us to do.  And let us do them with joy!

Prayer: “Heavenly Father, please help me not to live a meaningless life only for myself. Help me follow the Lord Jesus and do all the good deeds which You have planned for me to do to serve others and bring You praise and honor.”

Why do I want to follow Lord Jesus? Because I have accepted Him as my Savior. A savior is a person who saves or rescues me from something. If I am drowning and someone saves me, he is my savior. Lord Jesus is my Savior because He has saved me from all my sins. I sin every time I break one of the moral laws given by God in the Bible. Such as: “Love God, honor your parents, do not lie, do not steal, do not want what others have, don’t be selfish but love others like yourself” and many more. These sins keep on adding. Soon I have a mountain of sins on me –sins against God. These sins separate me from a holy God.  I cannot go to Him and my prayers will not reach Him.  God will punish me for them.

 What am I to do? One day I hear the good news:

• That Lord Jesus Himself came down to earth from heaven to take my punishment!
• That He died on the cross in my place! I hear that He came alive again! 
• Three days after being killed and buried, Lord Jesus rose up alive again bodily!
• He is now in heaven. I hear that He is the Supreme Ruler of all the heavens and the earth!

The Bible says: “Believe in Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”  Acts 16:31, I believe this good news of Lord Jesus with all my heart! Do you believe also, my friend? Is Lord Jesus your Savior?

Prayer: “Lord Jesus, You are my Savior and my God.  I worship You.”

My birth parents, siblings and I lived in a tiny 250 sq. ft. home, on the outskirts of Bangalore. My father, an extremely poor and broken man drank daily to forget his pain and wasted away what little money we had. When I was just 5 years old, my mother, in utter desperation, set fire to herself and died before my eyes, leaving me with horrible memories. Many people in India still believe in karma, and my family was one of them. Karma teaches that when something bad happens to a person they are paying for the sins of their previous life, thus deserving of their current suffering. Also, a person with bad karma can pass it on to others. So because I had witnessed my mother dying, nobody wanted to look after me. I felt the horrible pain, loss and abandonment!

Ten thousand miles away, a couple in the States, Peter and Vanita, heard about my terrible family situation, and felt led by God to adopt me, this unwanted, broken child – it was God’s providence. They went through a rigorous adoption process and I came home to them 8 months later! I came to a new culture, needing to learn a new language ,and they gave me a new name – Sandeep, which means light! With all of these changes, the transition was not easy. I was also suffering from severe post-traumatic stress, making adoption a very lonely and difficult walk for us.

As the years progressed, my younger sisters Sneha and Rachna joined our family. I however, became very angry at God, my adoptive parents and my birth father for my trauma and losses. I told my adoptive parents that I would never become a Christian because it did not make sense to me why a loving God could allow my mother to die that way. It was a strong spiritual battle for my soul, because human adoption is a reflection of God’s adoption of us into His family. What do I mean by this? The Bible tells us that because of sin we have chosen to separate ourselves from God so each one of us is a spiritual orphan. But God chose to adopt us into His family through the death and resurrection of His son Jesus – Ephesians 1:4-5: He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.

God chose adoption before the foundations of the world. He paid a huge price to purchase our freedom – while we were hopeless and lost in sin; Jesus’ died on the cross as payment and He then offers the free gift of eternal life to us. Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Similarly, I was lost, abandoned and hopeless and my parents by God’s grace did whatever it took to adopt me into their family. Since I was coming into a Christian home, Satan hated and severely attacked my family and me.

Towards the end of my 9^th Grade, Satan’s attacks on me were the strongest and my parents almost thought they had lost me as I was very angry, depressed and rebellious. God in His mercy continued to hold onto them ,even when they were discouraged and tempted to give up, granting them wisdom and grace to love me and put strong boundaries around me. Finally, in September 2009, after rebelling and struggling for 11 years, I surrendered my life to Jesus and found peace and joy for the first time in 17 years! John 1:12: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Looking back on my life, God’s grace has been extremely evident throughout. There have been pivotal events in my life which God has used to steer me according to His purposes. I had very deep anger against my birth father, and I carried the heavy burden of unforgiveness for 11 years. After I surrendered I found freedom, because God gave me the grace to forgive. It was not the new life that my adoptive parents gave me which changed my life, but the eternal life God has given me through Jesus.

My life is a miracle, and the entire glory goes to Jesus. He chose me, He loved me, He provided for my needs, and He carries me through life! I was once hopeless, but today I have eternal hope in Him.

So why am I telling you my story? Because it is an illustration of the gospel. We are all sinners but God in His mercy sent His beloved son to die on the cross as payment for our sins. Today we all have been given the free gift of salvation, and we have a choice to make. My prayer in sharing my story is that anyone who has not found that hope will find it in Jesus.

Below is a my testimony being shared at the Refresh Conference: