Permanent Ink

PERMANENT INK

 

Written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God… (2 Corinthians 3:3)

 

ABOVE WOODLAND PARK, COLORADO, on the evening of August 11, 1958, at a teen camp on the side of Pike's Peak in a log chapel, I asked God to forgive me. I knew I was a sinner. My soul wrestled with two sermons I'd heard: “The Devil Never a Payday Shirks” and “Your Salvation Can't Hang on a Peg in the Church Foyer.” I knew I deserved to go to hell, because no matter how nice I was at church, I was definitely a demon at home. Jesus was faithful and saved me from my sins.

The permanent change began immediately. A peace surrounded me and permeated my being; I “floated” down the fifty-eight steps to the girls' dormitory. A divine presence made me confident that I was on the way to heaven, and I already felt like an angel. [This is a sweet sentiment, but will readers be concerned about the idea of Christians becoming angels in heaven?] After forty-seven years, I know I still have far to go, but I am confident that I am on the right road.

What could be more permanent than a message written on my heart by the Spirit of the living God? Imagine the caption “Paid in Full” stamped over all my sin, and the ink is nonerasable—indelible.

 

 —Rose Goble

 

Focus on Calvary's completeness in dealing with sin.