This past March 2021, I celebrated 50 years of my faith in God, thankful for Jesus and his atoning work on the cross, through which I have forgiveness and eternal life, and for his resurrection. I was saved 50+ years ago in 1971 while studying philosophy at Yale. I had diverted into reading various religious writings, beginning with the Eastern religions, and when I ran out of religions, I said to myself, ‘I guess I better read the Bible to be fair.’ I had never read through the Bible. I started at Genesis 1 in the hotel King James Bible I found in my cottage in Woodmont, Connecticut. I read through the Old Testament which was very difficult. When I started reading the New Testament and the Gospels, it was much easier to read. Then in the middle of the Gospel of Luke, I suddenly believed what I was reading was true. I was truly surprised. There was no decision, one moment I did not believe and the next moment I did. I know know it was a sovereign work of God regenerating my spirit. I was suddenly sorry for all my sinful behavior and confessed the best I could. Now fifty years later, I marvel how God has kept me both alive, and believing his Word in the Bible.
I must give God the glory for keeping me in the faith all these years, for the gift of perseverance. As a Bible-believing Christian, I have confidence that I will never fall away, that perseverance accompanies true faith and salvation in God, through His son Jesus, and his atoning death on the cross and resurrection, with the work of the Holy Spirit day by day strengthening me and keeping me. Thus, a simple statement of the Gospel that is the foundation of my faith.
This is a passage from the Gospel of John that contains the promise of perseverance to those who are truly chosen by God, who necessarily humble themselves, and recognize their sins, and repent, though repentance is continuous until we die.
Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. . . . My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
John 10:14-15, 27-30 (English Standard Version)
I have often shared my account of my spiritual life with others which I posted on this blog in 2008. My Spiritual Memoir, which I wrote in 2005, accounts for my spiritual life from childhood and high school in Omaha, Nebraska, my unbelief until my conversion in 1971 reading the Bible while at Yale, and the more remarkable supernatural and providential events over my life since then which have made my faith unshakeable.
To those who have not read it, and would like to read it, here is the link to David Larkin’s Spiritual Memoir. It is about 23 pages long:
https://betweentwocities.com/spiritual-memoir/
Here is a shorter version, Supernatural Answers to Prayers in my Life, which has a brief account of my conversion and the second half of my Spiritual Memoir with the record of the more remarkable supernatural answers to prayer and the providential events that were God’s revelation and confirmation to me of his existence and his hand in my life.
https://betweentwocities.com/2015/08/29/supernatural-answers-to-prayers-in-my-life/
Here is my wife Susan’s testimony. When we met 33 years ago both her parents had committed suicide, her mother when Susan was 3 and her father when she was 28. She was in therapy. She tells how God delivered her in this testimony. She had an interesting life like me before we met. She has been a Christian for 33 years now. Click below:
BETWEEN TWO CITIES 