Saved from Certain Death!
My Name Is Josiah Kuenzi, and This Is the Story of how God Changed my Life Forever
If you’re like me, you’re curious about what will happen after death. Please consider my story and God’s promise that a person can know he has eternal life! God’s perfect plan for me was to be born to Christian parents on December 14, 1982. As their first child, my parents determined to train me according to principles in the Bible. Their desire was for me to begin a personal relationship with God.
When I was very young, my parents read Bible stories to me. Dad, who enjoys music, composed a song. Part of it went like this, “Jesus died for your sins, won’t you let Him come in?” From the time I was born, my parents took me to a Bible-believing Baptist church every time the doors were open. I quickly learned all the common Bible stories in Sunday School and church. Every day I was continually taught from God’s Word. I learned how Jesus Christ had died on the cross to make it possible for me to go to heaven when I die.
My heart was stirred as I heard that I needed to be “saved.” One night, after family devotions, I asked my parents how I could be saved. My parents gladly talked with me and showed me some verses from the Bible. My parents asked me, “Josiah, what kinds of things do you do that are bad?”
God opened up my eyes and showed me that even as a young boy, I was guilty of fighting with my brothers, disobeying, lying, and disrespecting my parents. My parents explained that sin separates me from God. God’s requirement for eternal life is to keep all the commandments, yet only Jesus has perfectly kept them all. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
For the first time in my life, I understood that I was a vile sinner in need of a Saviour. No, I wasn’t a vile sinner from most people’s viewpoint. I was a seemingly innocent child. But, James 2:10 declares, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” This means that even though I hadn’t committed “big sins,” I still fell short of God’s requirement of holiness (to be without sin.) Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” I understood that I deserve to die and spend all of eternity in Hell because of my sin. If I didn’t trust Jesus as my only hope of salvation, I was headed for a most certain death – separation from God forever in the lake of fire!
I could never be good enough to be saved. In fact, Isaiah 64:6 says that even a person’s righteousness is as filthy rags to God. I couldn’t gain a personal relationship with God because my parents were Christians or because I was a “good little boy.” God only accepts those who trust the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That night I realized my need to personally accept Jesus Christ as the Saviour and Lord of my life.
October 10, 1987, I repented of my sin, and trusted Christ alone for salvation. I claimed God’s promise of everlasting life! (1John 5:13) I was forever saved from certain death! It was by God’s grace that I could be born-again at such a young age. Obviously, I was a little child, simple in understanding. Praise God, He showed me a glimse of my sin and my need of a Saviour to pay the debt of my sin! As a child, I often had to trust Dad, clutching his finger as we crossed a busy road. Similarly, I placed my faith in Christ to be my Saviour and Lord!
This experience was not merely a prayer I said as a child, for a prayer could never save me. This was the beginning of my relationship with God! It is a decision that has lasted to this day and will never fade away. Christ is real to me! From the point of my salvation, God brought about a total inward and outward change in my life. He put in me a totally different mind-set. God gave me a burning hatred for sin that caused me to turn from it. Now I strive to please God instead of myself. I do not go to church and do all these things for God out of duty. I could never earn my way into heaven. I serve God out of love because He paid a debt I could never pay. Today, I am far from perfect, but when I confess my sin to God, and forsake that sin, God is faithful and just to forgive me and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Through the years of my personal relationship with God, He has given me victory over particular sins that I have struggled with, and for this, I give Him all the glory and praise.
Since the time of my salvation, God has spared my life on more than one occasion. As a young teenager, I was crossing an intersection on my bicycle. A car ran a red light and hit me. I flew off the bike and landed on my head. My helmet cracked, but I was saved from certain death!
On November 1, 2001, I began my commute to work well before dawn. Soon I approached several vehicles behind a slow moving truck, so I pulled out to pass them. A Jeep Cherokee beside me pulled out into my lane. At approximately 70 M.P.H., I veered onto the shoulder to avoid a collision. I smashed a mailbox shattering my headlights and deploying my airbags. The right front wheel of my car hit a pile of dirt. This sent me airborne in a rollover. My car hurtled over an embankment, through some brush. I remember the windshield shattering as my car bounced through a series of rough bumps. The bottom of the car struck a tree and bent the frame. My car toppled onto its roof, wrinkled and crushed. The seat belt had broken and I was right side up with my feet on the headliner. The headrest was smashed through the sunroof, but my head was fine! There was barely enough room for me to crawl out of the narrow space which had once been my driver’s side window.
I sustained only a liver laceration and a few cuts and bruises. There is no way I should have come out of that car alive. God saved me from certain death! I know God is the One who spared me, and I know He has a special purpose for me. God used this accident in my life to refocus my attention on eternal matters. Getting a good job and making lots of money is worthless in God’s eyes. This life is so short. I need to invest in eternity. (Matthew 6:33)
It’s so clear to me that God saved me from physical death numerous times, but most importantly, He has saved me from spiritual death. The Bible speaks clearly of an eternal separation from God in the lake of fire for those who reject Christ. Hebrews 9:27 declares, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” Are you prepared to meet God? Romans 14:11 “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
God saved me from certain death to do a work in my life. He has blessed me with a beautiful wife Tiffany, and a son, Dillon Josiah, born June 16, 2006. The Christian life does not come without trials and difficulties. Our son was born with brain damage due to lack of oxygen during the time of his birth. We feed our boy through a feeding tube. Along with his swallowing difficulties and hearing problems, the doctors tell us our boy will never see. Each day the only source of strength and hope comes from our God who is molding and making us into vessels he can use.
Psalm 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."
“Only one life, ‘twill soon be passed, Only what’s done for Christ will last.”