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Free Grace
Digest
A Ministry of Free Grace
Seminary
Dr.
Michael D.
Halsey, Editor
Vol. 1, No. 1
January-April 2009
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Testimony of Dana Shamburger
As
presented to the Free Grace
Alliance Conference
County Line
Church , Hampton , GA
September 20,
2008
Strong-willed, stubborn,
bull-headed, dogmatic,
opinionated and
domineering. These are all
traits with which I have
been labeled. Some may say
these are negative and
unwanted traits. But I
would like to encourage
parents with strong-willed
children that sometimes
these can be positive
character traits.
Dr. Mike
Halsey the pastor of County
Line Church and
the president of Free Grace
Seminary asked me if I would
give my testimony as to why
I believe so strongly in the
free grace message of
salvation by faith alone in
Christ alone.
I became a
Christian at age 8 at a
vacation Bible school
in
Greenville , South Carolina
, at
Augusta Street Presbyterian
Church. This church
had separated from the
Westminster Confession of
Faith and PCA and
taught the free grace
message. I consider it a
blessing to know that was my
spiritual birthday. I did
the catechism, was
sprinkled, and joined the
church when I was in the 5th
grade.
We moved to
Birmingham , Alabama
, when I was in the 7th
grade and joined Shades
Mountain Bible Church where
I sat under the teaching of
Howard (Mickey) Park. Pastor
Park graduated from
Dallas Theological Seminary
in the 60’s having studied
under
Charles Ryrie and
other biblical scholars.
His teaching gave me a
strong foundation in
doctrine and had much to do
with my being able to resist
and refute the incorrect
teachings to which I was to
be exposed, over the next
several years. I
surrendered publicly to the
Lord at age 15 for Him to
use me in whatever way He
wanted.
This sounds
very simple but I went
through some times of
uncertainty and doubt about
my beliefs and salvation. I
wondered why I was having
such doubts.
Perhaps the
seeds of doubt were planted
when I attended a youth
group with a friend and they
told me I had gotten saved
the wrong way, since I had
not walked down the aisle at
church and been baptized.
Maybe it was
because when I was in the 10th
grade, attending a
Christian school, my
teacher told us that if we
were true Christians and in
fellowship with the Lord, we
would pass geometry. I made
an F the first 6 weeks.
When I was brought in for my
required conference with the
teacher I was not asked
“What do you not understand
about the subject?” The
teacher asked me if I was a
Christian and if so why I
was not in fellowship with
the Lord.
It could have
been when I was kicked off
the cheerleading squad for
dancing, kissed the guys I
dated before marriage or at
one time watched a soap
opera on TV.
After my
marriage to David in 1979,
being in the military, we
moved every 2 ½ to 3 years.
We had the opportunity to
attend a variety of
churches, representing the
various denominations all
over the United States as we
went to different duty
stations when David was on
active duty with the Air
Force, I have heard pastors
and evangelists give a list
of things to do in order to
be saved that are so
complicated that it’s a
wonder any one under their
ministries comes to know
Christ.
I heard it
all: ”To be saved you have
to… come forward to receive
Christ, place your sins at
the foot of the cross, take
up the
cross of Christ, lay
aside your sins, walk the
aisle and be baptized,
confess your sins, then
wait. When you receive your
prayer language you’ll
receive the
Holy Spirit, and at
last you will be saved
Along the
way, they told me to make
Jesus Lord of my life, then
I could be saved. After
years of confusion and doubt
I wanted to scream, “No!
No! No! I know I’m a
Christian because I believed
in Jesus and received His
free gift of eternal life
when I was 8.”
My
stubbornness kicked in. I
wanted to be able to defend
my beliefs and prove to all
of those people that I was
right to believe in
salvation by grace through
faith alone in Christ alone
and I did not have to do
anything to earn it. I also
wanted to be sure I was
teaching my daughters
correctly, as well as the
students with whom I was
entrusted in the Christian
schools where I worked.
Thanks to
Precept Ministries
and
Kay Arthur’s
Inductive Bible Study
series, (studying the Bible
using cross references and
original languages) I
started learning all I could
about how to study the Bible
spending much time focusing
on the
doctrine of salvation.
My study
showed me in numerous
references in the
gospel of John and in
the epistles that all one
has to do in order to gain
salvation is believe in
Jesus and His finished work
on the cross. Moreover, I
learned that those who told
me I had to walk an aisle,
leave my sins at the foot of
the cross, get baptized and
stop sinning were wrong.
Simply put, many of these
church leaders were trying
to take daily sanctification
and spiritual growth items
of obedience and lump them
together as prerequisites to
salvation. Yes, as a
believer I do need to
“trust in the Lord, with all
my heart”, “refrain from
worldly behavior” and “be
filled with the Holy Spirit;
not as a means of salvation
but as an exercise of a
believer who wants to
conform himself to become
more like Christ
I came to
believe strongly in free
grace, not only because I’m
stubborn and wanted to prove
wrong those who made me feel
guilty and doubt my
salvation but also because
it is what the Word of God
says. I encourage every one
of you not to be misled in
thinking salvation comes by
any other means that by
grace alone, through faith
alone in Christ alone
because of His finished work
on the cross.
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