THIS IS MY STORY - RUTH DRAGELIN

A great gift!

Women are known to have a penchant for shopping and love a bargain. I’ve observed that there are people who even shop for a way of life. Anyone looking at my life in 1970 would have thought that I had shopped well. I was married to a nice guy who was succeeding in business. We had 3 cute normal kids, had a house at the Jersey shore and one in the suburbs, drove the latest model cars and entertained friends and were active in our church and the community.

But if anyone had asked me if I were truly happy, after taking a long look inside of myself, I would honestly have had to say, "no". I couldn’t answer those 3 questions of life: Who am I? Why am I here? What’s my purpose and what happens when I die.

I’m a PK....Preacher’s kid. I believed everything I was taught in church. I believed in God, Jesus and heavenand hell. I am the youngest of 8 and was always introduced as this is the baby of the family. My father’s youngest, always the youngest sister, wife of my husband; mother of my children; collector for all charities; home room mother, walker of the dog.

My father was a strict disciplinarian. I was told that I was to obey and be good. A good child, student, wife, mother, housekeeper, etc. I thought that if I was good enough I could go to heaven. But, I knew I wasn’t even good enough for my own father -- how could I be good enough for God?

Our dentist’s wife invited me to her home to a neighborhood Bible study. I reluctantly went. As I sat from September to May in that study with the women, I realized they all had something I didn’t have and I wanted it. I felt like the kid standing outside the bakery looking in the window at all those goodies - smelling the aroma - but not having money to go in and buy anything. I chalked it up to the fact that they were from their church and I was from mine. When the study ended in May, the women invited me to a women’s conference to be held in some other church…for 4 days! Morning and afternoon! How could they talk about the Bible for that long? But I was curious so I went.

The first day, I heard that being good wasn’t going to get me into heaven because I could never be good enough.

I learned that I was a sinner and needed Jesus as my Savior. God is holy and could not even look at me in my sin.

But He loved me so much that He sent His Son Jesus to take my sin on Himself and die the death that was rightfully mine. I learned that there would be an exchange of my sin being put on Jesus; and His goodness, His righteousness would be given to me. A gift. The speaker said that even if I were the only person born on earth, Jesus would still die for me. It was personal. She led us in prayer. So, I prayed with her, thanking God for His gift, confessing all my sin, agreeing with Him that I am a sinner, and I asked Jesus to come into

my life as my Savior, forgiving me and asking Him to make me into the woman He wanted me to be.

There was no flash of lightening, no choir of angels, no trumpet sound. But I knew that I knew that I knew. You see I was a worrier. I took pills for nerves and other pills for my stomach. Everything was a crisis. Life did not become perfect. Life is not a bowl of cherries, cherries have pits; nor is it a rose garden, roses have thorns. But I had a new life.

Jesus says in the Bible that He came to give us new life. He came to give us peace and He came to give us joy and everlasting life.

The company my husband represented went on strike about 6 months. We could have lost everything he had worked for. In my husband’s story, he said that he was annoyed with me because rather than wringing my hands in worry and taking pills, I slept and he was walking the floor at night and existinng on Carnation instant breakfast. I was at peace.

My mother came to make her home with us, and within days of one another, she had to

have surgery to have a leg amputated, our daughter of 19 ran away to parts unknown, and one of our sons cut the tip of a finger off on the lawnmower. The Lord gave me peace.

In 2014, my husband went home to be with his Savior and I now had to handle the finances which was very new to me. I discovered that we didn’t have what I thought we had. My husband was sicker than I had thought and for a longer time, making poor decisions. I made the decision to move south near my children, and the house inspector told me that I had to replace all the doors and windows in the house. I had to deal with trades people readying the house for sale, finding a realtor, moving company, all the issues my husband used to

handle. God brought me through it all, led me to a great community here in N.C. to live, and to a wonderful Bible believing and teaching church, giving me a new chapter in my ongoing story with Him.

I know the answers to the questions now. I know who I am, I am a born again sinner saved by grace and love, a child of God, a daughter of the King. My purpose is to love Him, enjoy fellowship with Him, serve Him and share Him. I know that when I breathe my last breath, I will be with Him in the place that He has prepared for me. He has given me a new life, peace that cannot be understood, joy which is more than just happiness.

I heard a speaker at a conference say that happiness depends upon people, places,

things, and events. They all change. But joy is deep within because I have peace with God made sure by the death and resurrection of Jesus and the peace of God because He lives within. I have surety of life forever with Him. Asking Christ to be my Savior, has given me new life, peace, joy, and life with Jesus for all eternity.

All of that and I didn’t pay a penny. Jesus paid it all.

Scripture references:

Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God"

Romans 5:8: "For God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Ephesians 2:8-9: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast."

John 1:12, John 3:3, John 3:36, John 5: 24, John 6:47, John

10:10, John 14:27, John 15:11; 2 Corinthians 5:17, 21, 2:14-16:

Psalm 146:9