Ana Leah, like many of the people in our church, comes from an evangelical background. She had left and come back to a religious life many times. Sometimes, she had even reached the point of asking Christ to just depart from her altogether. When she came to our church, she had some understanding of the true gospel, but she did not know Christ truly. Although this knowledge had an illuminating effect on her in that it restricted some of the expression of her sinful nature, she only responded by substituting the more obvious and outward sins for more subtle and hidden sins. This was really nothing other than religious hypocrisy. It was only after she had been coming to the church for a short time that the gospel that she had known only in a theoretical fashion began to be applied to her heart. It wasn’t long before her hypocrisy was made evident to her. Through the testimonies of others who once lived in similar hypocrisy, through the lives of the other believers in the church, and through the Lord’s blessing on the preaching of His word, she was overwhelmed with her sin. Then, one good day, after a sermon on the subtlety of self-deceit and the certain evidences of salvation, Analia confessed that she had never been born again and that she did not love the Lord Jesus. After several nights of crying out to Christ for salvation, He rescued her! How good is the Lord, who is quick to forgive with joy even those who took His name so lightly for years!
Micaela is the young daughter of a married couple in our church. The manner in which she was saved is wonderful! Practically from the time I met her, she was very apathetic toward the gospel. I remember seeing her sitting nearly in the last row during our Sunday meetings, completely distracted and alienated from what was going on. In fact, sometimes she said openly that she didn’t pay attention to the sermons or understand them at all. But through the same sermon that awakened Analia from her slumber, the Lord also awakened Micaela to her sin. And like Analia, she spent some days in agony and desperation, until one day the light shined and she understood that she was loved of God and that the gift of Christ’s righteousness was offered freely to her! When this happened, she cried out with joy! And her reaction is totally appropriate, since didn’t Christ Himself say that there is great rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents?
Carolina is a young lady from the interior of Argentina. She came to Rosario for her university studies. Her past is very hard, as had been her time in Rosario up to the time that we met her. After some sporadic visits to our church meetings, she decided to begin congregating with us regularly. Before long, listening to one of the radio programs from our church in which my wife was telling her testimony of conversion, Carolina was confronted with her need to be saved. At the beginning she tried to defend herself before God’s law, appealing to her own personal righteousness. But her resistance was almost immediately overcome by the gospel. All is new for Carolina today, who was baptized joyfully as she now became part of her new family in Christ.
