Only Believe

My mother was 44 years old when I was born and my daddy was 63.

I was the youngest of nine children. When I was about 4 years old, I 

noticed that all the mothers of my friends looked younger than mine

and I worried that mama might die.

I ask mama if she was going to heaven when she died and she said,

"Honey,I hope so.", then I went one step further and ask her, "Am

I going to heaven when I die?" and she said "Honey, I hope so."

My parents were Primitive Baptist, or Hardshell Baptist. I don't 

know the official position of Primitive Baptist, but I know what my

parents believed. Mama told me that before the foundation of the

world, God wrote down (and I thought she meant on a piece of

paper) everyone's name that He was going to allow to go to

heaven. If your name was not on that list, then you would go to

hell. I didn't quite understand that, because mama said that God

loved everyone.

Our church only had service on the second Sunday in each month,

and when I was about 8 or 9 years old, we did not even go that

often, because of daddy's health. So I knew every little about the 

Bible. I don't remember hearing anything about Jesus in that church.

I must have heard the name, but didn't know anything about Him. 

We had no musical instruments in the church, so even the singing 

wasn't very pretty and I didn't listen very much because the preacher

would talk loud and then say a lot of "ahhs" and "and-das".

When I was 21 years old, I married Jim and we moved to Atlanta, 
Georgia. Jim grew up in a Southern Baptist Church, so we joined

a SBC in Atlanta. The preacher was sort of elder or at least he 

looked  old to me. But, of course, I was looking through the eyes

of a 21 year old. He didn't yell or speak in a sing~sing voice. It

was a very pleasant voice, explaining what the Bible said and I 

began to listen.

Time went on and I bought a newer translation of the Bible and

was able to understand it better and found out some amazing

things. First of all, Jesus said He died for the whole world, not

just a few. He also said that all I had to do was believe in Him and

I could go to heaven when I died. He promised it and He can not

lie. Now that was something worth having! I was convinced that 

Jesus gave eternal life to all who believed Him for it.

"Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe:

Sin had left a crimson stain, 

He washed it white as snow."

Words by Elivina M. Hall

Music by John T. Grape