Good Morning everyone, and Happy Resurrection Sunday! For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Jaime Deubner. First, I want to tell you about who I was before I became saved. I grew up, being dragged to church every Sunday. My friends were there, and I never really paid any attention to what was said, but I knew about Jesus and that he died on the cross to save the world from sin and I knew a few Bible stories. In children’s church we were told to draw a picture of where we were when we “asked Jesus into our hearts” so I drew a picture of me in the bath, and said that that’s where I was when I prayed and asked Jesus to come into my heart. I don’t know if that was true or not, but I thought that I was a Christian. Then, when I was sixteen my mom told me that I could choose if I wanted to continue going with her to church, but I chose to sleep on Sunday instead. All of the adults always thought that I was such a nice girl, the “good girl” out of my two sisters and me. But I really wasn’t. I was mean, and bitter, and selfish. I also got into trouble – I just hid it better. I stayed at friends’ houses a lot because my parents were divorced and my mom worked. I was my own god, I followed my own rules and did whatever I wanted and I didn’t care who I emotionally hurt in the process.

My sister Criss had found this church and learned a lot about God and the Bible, and she started to share it with me. After she became saved, she shared with me the changes that occurred in her life. It took awhile, but I decided to start attending church services occasionally. On Sunday, May 25, 2008, I heard Andy Csilig’s sermon on The Parable of the Sower. It really got me thinking about my “profession of being a Christian.” By the end of the sermon, I was feeling really convicted about the way I had lived my life up to that point, and that just because I attended church growing up, DID NOT mean that I was going to heaven. God brought me to realize that I was not a “good person” like I had thought, but that I am a terrible, horrible, disgusting sinner just like everyone else. But He didn’t leave me there, He sent His only son Jesus, to pay for my sins on the cross. Jesus bore the cost of my sin against God in His blood, so that I could be saved. We have an amazing, gracious, loving, and forgiving God! I immediately felt free – like a weight had been lifted. I was no longer bogged down by my sin – I became a child of God! It seemed like I was looking at life through new eyes, even the colors of car paint seemed beautiful to me. I saw the world as God’s amazing creation!