Dustin Rankin - College Ministries Director

The Lord has done amazing things in my life, so much so that I can’t honestly believe that I’m where I’m at in my life today. I grew up in a non-Christian home with no emphasis on church or God. Several of my family members actually believed God was non existent. Growing up, my friends and I loved to play basketball and we would play anywhere possible. My non-Christian friends invited me to play at a church on Wednesday nights after the youth group service was over. I ended up going to this church for a while and then I was invited to a youth convention in Omaha, Nebraska. We went out there as a group but were separated when we stayed with the students of the college. I’m sure the students had good intentions with sharing the gospel with me; however, they shared that if I said a “prayer” I would be saved. So I said the “prayer” and told myself that I was saved. I went home and tried to live the Christian life by my own power and legalistic ways. It worked, for a couple of weeks before I went back to my old sinful habits and even added some new ones. I started to go to a local bible college here in Iowa and was trying to study my way into becoming a better Christian. I was basing my Christianity on my pride and my “prayer”, and it wasn’t until I was hearing the gospel from my pastor that God managed to get through to me. Pastor Nemmers always preached a gospel message and said that if we are basing our Christianity on our own strength then we were not saved. I would drive home from church every Sunday fighting on the inside between “am I saved? Am I not saved?” It was when I read John 5:39-40 which says,

“You diligently study?? the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, ? yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”

Jesus Christ saved me from my sins not because I prayed a prayer or studied at a bible college, but because I believed in Him to wash my sins away with His blood! I have been thankful for His saving grace and I know that I will spend eternity with God in heaven. I have been saved by grace through faith not by works which I have done but by the work that Jesus Christ did for me! I love my Savior and though I’m far from perfect, I know He is and He is perfecting me daily!

Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior?