Hi folks!    My name is Dave Cottrell, and I am the webmaster of Daveshearth and associate pastor of Sunshine Community Baptist Church.     By the grace of God, this is my testimony.

I was blessed to have been born into a Christian family.     As far back as I can remember, I heard all about God and his love.    I accepted the reality of God and his wonderful son probably as soon as I developed any ability to understand words.   I never doubted the existence of God.

However, being born in a Christian home and believing in the existence of God did not make me a Christian.    The Bible says that even the demons believe that God is and tremble.    They are certainly not saved.

No, I wasn't born a Christian.    I had to be born again for that to happen.

However, because of God's grace, my life was tremendously different from those around me.    God used the teaching and nurturing of my parents to teach me about his love.    I don't know why God extended his marvelous grace to me at such an early age.    But I often think it was to save me from what I might have become if he hadn't.   

Anyway, God saved me at a very early age.    I don't remember when I was saved.    I don't remember when I didn't believe in Jesus with all my heart and trust him to save me.   But this I do know:  I put my faith in Jesus Christ as my Saviour and I am therefore saved and secure for all eternity.

Some well-meaning people have challenged my salvation over the years.   They want to know the day and hour I was saved.   I thank God that this information is not a requirement for salvation.

Some people have suggested that I am not saved because I did not "pray the prayer."    Where IS that prayer?     I have seen one glued to the inside cover of many a Bible, but never once have I seen it IN the Bible.   I thank God that he didn't require me to find the perfect words to say to qualify me for salvation.

I am saved because God extended his grace to me.   Jesus died for my sins and rose again to give me eternal life.   God extended his grace to me and gave me the ability to know and understand when I was very young.   I have always known that I am a sinner and have to trust Jesus to save me.   I put my trust in Jesus so long ago in my life that I cannot remember a time when I wasn't saved.

I used to be somewhat jealous of people that were saved later in life.    They had such great testimonies!    But eventually God (marvelously patient Father that he is!) showed me how wonderfully he has blessed me by saving me so young.    I don't know what terrible things I might have done if I had not been saved as a child.    I would not trade what God in his omniscience, wisdom and love has done for me for the most spectacular (by human standards) testimony imaginable, for God has given me the most wonderful testimony that I can imagine: That I have been saved by his wonderful grace through faith, and that grace and faith is a gift from God!

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the lord Jesus Christ, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Romans 10:9

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Romans 10:13

It is good for each of us to find a versed that really stands out as our assurance of salvation.     God has given me 1John3:14a: "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren."    God has put a tremendous love in my heart for my brothers and sisters in Christ - a love that is not natural for fallen man.    He has also given me a love and a burden for the lost that is not natural.   This love is the love of Christ that abides in me.

Praise be to God for his wonderful grace!