007: What Is Your Salvation Story, Interview With Jeremy and Carolina Horton 7:17:19

Cindy Spencer 0:07
Hi, my name is Pastor Cindy, welcome to The Good News podcast. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to have all the benefits that Jesus purchased for you on the cross? Guess what you already do? I spent most of my life looking at my performance both good and bad. Instead of looking at what Jesus had done for me, my relationship took a radical turn when my focus went off of me and I put it back on Jesus. My heart's desire is to stir up your faith and passion for Jesus and bring you into new levels of friendship with him. Ready to hear the good news? Let's hop on over to today's episode.

Whoo. Hey, everyone. Before we start this episode, today, I just wanted to give a big shout out to my sister Kathy, who 37 years ago on July 17, brought me to the Lord and got me started on my walk with Jesus. Thank you so much, Kathy. I love you lots. Hey, welcome, everyone. This is Pastor Cindy. And today for this episode, I've invited two of my friends. And I have Jeremy Horton and his beautiful wife, Carolina Horton. And they're here today to talk about salvation. On today, July 17, 2019, it is my 37th birthday, as being a Christian. And I decided to share about salvation today and different perspectives, and how Jesus has touched my life in such a different way, compared to how he's touched Jeremy, and how he's touched, Carolina. And so we're going to share our different stories, and encourage you guys that no matter what your path has been like with Jesus, that it's beautiful. And it's so personal. It's so God treats us all with our personalities, and our individual likes and dislikes and who we are and how we learn. So I'm going to go ahead and start with Jeremy, thank you so much for coming today.

Jeremy Horton 2:24
Thank you, Cindy, for having us. We really appreciate your presence and God's presence in this room right now.

Cindy Spencer 2:30
Thank you. Yeah. And this is Carolina.

Carolina Horton 2:34
Yes. Thank you for having us, Cindy, really, such a pleasure to be able to share the love of God and the miracles he's done for us when they can

Cindy Spencer 2:42
encourage someone else. Exactly. And I just I have to tell you guys that are listening. You know, I've known Jeremy and Carolina for about a year now. And they just glow. The love of God has touched their heart in such a way that they just glow and they love to help people and they love to serve in the church. And it's just changed their whole family, their three girls. And so we're going to talk a little bit about that. And some of the differences that I experienced in my walk over the 37 years. So why don't we go ahead? And do you want to start Carolina and kind of just share how you found Jesus and what it was like growing up? Yeah.

Carolina Horton 3:30
So I was born and raised in Chile, I was part of a very strict religious Catholic school. My whole upbringing, there was no encouragement to really have a relationship with Jesus, where to find it for myself, it was very much rules-based and just staying within those rules. Okay. So when my husband, after being married for 10 years, decided to go on this walk. I was against him. It's something that I did not receive. I didn't think I needed in my life. So when he found Jesus, it was really different for you. It was night and day because I saw such a transformation in him. Wow, that it made me want it. I really Jesus. I saw Jesus in him. When I was being a pest, he would just love me. When I would try to fight with him, he wouldn't respond. He was fathering our children in a very different way. So I reached the point where I said, What's different? What is it? And he said, Is Jesus? I said, Well, no, I've read the Bible. I know, I know. He said You don't? You may have read. But you don't know Jesus.

Cindy Spencer 4:53
Wow. How did you feel?

Carolina Horton 4:57
I mean, it humbled me in really in a soft end of my heart, and it made me realize that there is something that I don't know. So I said, Okay, sure. Let's try. Okay. And he came in, and, you know, I was asking him to change me. And he went ahead and just change my whole household. Wow, that's so much more than, you know, I'm like, help me with my mess. And he's like, I'm gonna clean a little bit, honey. That's amazing. And he Jesus is so good. Yeah. So good. so kind. And so full of truth and wisdom. I mean, I had so many questions that I didn't know who to go to. And he so kindly has revealed time after time, answered all of my questions. Wow. very logical person. And so if things don't make sense, I can't trust it. Believe it digest it. Yeah, me too. But he

Cindy Spencer 5:57
That was part of my problem too.

Carolina Horton 6:00
But you know, he's so kindly put people in my life who spoke to me the way that I needed it. He put different people in different seasons who have watered what he's growing, who have thrown new seed, in good soil. It really has shown me You know, I've always thought of myself that I'm independent. And so I got this, I can take care of it. But there is such growth, in fellowship and in family and in contact with people. You know, it has really brought me to the revelation of the body of Christ and how you may be a thumb and I may be a pinky together, make it happen. Yeah, right.

Cindy Spencer 6:47
I mean, you can't if you don't have an elbow. Right, right. Arm won't work. Absolutely. Right. So for you, it's been two years.

Carolina Horton 6:58
Two years. Yes.

Cindy Spencer 7:00
Okay. So, Jeremy, I think you mentioned earlier that you've been saved like three years now.

Jeremy Horton 7:06
Yeah, about three years now. It'll be three years in October this year. So, you know, when I started off, I was dealing with a lot of addiction. A lot of just stuff that I dealt with my past because, you know, I never grew up with any church upbringing. You know, I had great parents, but a lot of rules. So and a lot of rules I like to break. So I wasn't really a good citizen, you know. So, I was just tired of my life. I was tired of failing. I was tired of disappointing my wife tired at this point in my kids. I almost lost my job at Boeing. I had to actually go through a rehab program just to save my job at Boeing. And when I came back, and when I passed my rehab program, I met a guy named Kevin, and he introduced me to the Bible. He said, Hey, read the Bible, read the Bible. Well, I wasn't quite ready yet. So I kept

I avoided him a lot. So he would find me.

 

Every single time I avoided him. So he was like, You know what, just read the Bible. And I got tired of him asking me telling me to and so I started reading it at work on my breaks at lunch even. But at work, I was watching a Todd White video. And at the end of the video, he was like, hey, whoever wants Jesus right now in their heart and wants to change and wants to repent, and accept them right now and say this prayer. So I said that prayer, and I just felt something shift. Something shifted, where I just felt so different, like, it had to be supernatural. Because the transformation work to where I used to be at it was It couldn't have been just me. So one by one thing started getting knocked off as far as the old me my addictions, my, my cussing, my, my, my, the hate towards my brothers, the unforgiveness I had towards people. It just started breaking and I just had this hunger to serve my God to serve Jesus. When I, when I found that Bible series on Netflix, I would watch him get crucified continually, I would put that episode on repeat, because I wanted the revelation I wanted to know. And now I know I have this appreciation that what he did on that cross wasn't just for my sin, it was for my true value. Like, he really told me how much he loves me and how much he valued me just for what he did on the cross. So since then, I just been really, really just in a place of serving God, and serving with him

Cindy Spencer 9:41
and just wanting to give back just

Jeremy Horton 9:43
wanting to because you have to not because I have to, because you want to because I want to and I love him so much because he loved me first. You know, and I love that the book of Ephesians. It was like my favorite book. Because, yeah, because it talks about how he knew us before the foundation of the earth, you know, and he said he set the plans before us. So like, it's crazy, because I was never an accident. You know, I was never an accident. And I am here for a purpose. And I was always searching for a purpose and my purpose here and wow. Now I know my purpose. Wow. Yeah. So that's

Cindy Spencer 10:20
amazing. And you know, the Bible says that he puts that in us.

Jeremy Horton 10:23
Yeah, exactly.

Cindy Spencer 10:24
And we're searching, but sometimes it's can be drugs, sometimes it can be another religion of another god, you know, and we're searching and searching and, and like myself, I didn't grow up with religion. But I did have some time in a Lutheran Church. Yeah. And so I knew God, but I didn't really know Jesus or the Holy Spirit. And by the time I got saved, you know, 37 years ago, I was 20 years old. And it was a long time of still feeling of doing where I had to perform for God. And I just constantly felt like I let him down. I get it. And I dealt with shame and condemnation. And I never heard that. You know, that John 3:19 that says, you know, Jesus came to set the world free and save the world. He didn't come to condemn us. Right, right. Right, you know, but I kept doing this condemnation. And a few years ago, I was in my concordance. And I looked at the word salvation, both in the Greek and the Hebrew. Yeah. And it says that your salvation means saved, made well, delivered, prospered and protected. And I was like, Wow, that is salvation. I mean, I had no idea. And so if you guys listen to Episode Six, I went into more of the Scriptures and all of that. So I'm not going to go into that today. But today is more just building our relationship with Jesus in a, in a new way, no matter where you're at, right? You know, and it doesn't matter if it took me 37 years to get it and Jeremy gets it. You know, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. So the three of us really want to encourage anyone that's listening to this, that, whether you're struggling with anything Jeremy had, or Carolina had, or any experiences I had, that it's never too late. And Jesus is here to help us, no matter where we're at, and he knows the way we need to learn the best. Yeah, like he knew that you needed to hear it from Todd White. He knew how Carolina needed it. And he knew how I needed to hear it. And so it's just, it doesn't matter if you've been saved 50 years, or if you've been saved one week, you need to just really give yourself grace, and just accept what Jesus did on the cross that he loves us so much, and that we are worthy of His love. And that's why he was on the cross. And that was beautiful. Jeremy, when you said that, you know, you watched him in the passion on the cross. You were seeing how he valued you, for him to go through that. He doesn't do that for

something that's not valuable. Right? Right. That's his body. It's his blood. And all that was done for us to walk in all these things forgiven, made, well delivered, prospered and protected was right. And so I also want to encourage anybody that maybe you have dealt with condemnation or shame, and you didn't know that all of this stuff happens, the minute you get saved, that it's not too late to walk in that because I could go into regret. And I could say, Man, if I had known that 37 years ago, my whole Christian walk would have been different. Yeah. But I'm not doing that. I learned it a couple years ago, I'm moving forward with that truth. And it's been amazing how my love for Jesus has grown. When I found that out. Yeah. And so um, the other thing I wanted to talk today about in one of the facets of building our relationship with Jesus, is sharing our faith. Would you like to share how sharing your faith has been for you, because we all kind of have things that we're nervous about, or we're not sure about, but what helped you in

Carolina Horton 14:32
sharing your faith? Certainly, I mean, my husband, he had something he really enjoys is something that comes natural to him. Ever since I've become saved and come into a new family and relationships, he has really taught me the value of those relationships and our family itself. So I was really shy, didn't have a lot of friends, isolation was a really thing, like a real thing for me. So just interacting with people was difficult. But ever since I've gotten the revelation of His love, and the fact that we're part of a new family, and that we're Jesus friends, I don't see them as strangers that I have to share a big plot with. I just talked to them as friends who are in need of something.

Cindy Spencer 15:18
Wow, a truth that you have,

Carolina Horton 15:20
right? Because most of the people, the troubles, they go through their complaints that they have about the world themselves, their families, their peers, Jesus is the answer. Mm hmm. They do the only answer, exactly. They just don't know. You know, they don't know what you don't know what you don't know. Right. So it's, it's a way to just start a conversation and to see them as friends. I really see them as I'm going to approach a friend who I know needs something.

Cindy Spencer 15:50
Yeah. Because you know how it changed you.

Carolina Horton 15:53
And that's, you know, once we do get to sharing, and you open up those conversations, we overcome by the blood of the Lamb, which is not me at all. It's all him. In the word of our testimony. I can share the heart places He's brought me out of I can share the changes he's done in me right. In witnessing that. That I mean, that is a witness. That's how you share it. They're like, Wow, really? I didn't know. At some point. I didn't know.

Cindy Spencer 16:24
Wow, exactly. We all do that.

Carolina Horton 16:26
Yes. So it's about just sharing the good news. really, truly, it is good news. Like when you have good food, you're like you have to try this. Same way. It's you have something good that they have no idea exists, and you

Cindy Spencer 16:43
really want them to try it. Yeah. That's really good. I like that.

Carolina Horton 16:49
Because aren't we like that? That's great. Please, just if people are like, No, thank you. I'm not hungry. Please just try it, one bite, I know you will. Wow. So and then it also comes with you know, when people say no, you just have to pray for them. You have to bless them on the way out and know that, you know, maybe Lord knows that somebody, it's on somebody else to reach them. Right. Because condemnation, at least with me was a real thing. They said no to me, I failed you today, you know? And he's like, no, that just that wasn't your assignment,

Cindy Spencer 17:22
and that you planted a seed, right? And now Holy Spirit will bring them the next seed.

Carolina Horton 17:28
And even by me just being obedient and stepping out. Yeah, even though I don't see that fruit. If it builds my relationship with the Father. Exactly. It brings me closer to him. The outcome isn't on me. It isn't.

Cindy Spencer 17:43
It's on the Holy Spirit. It's on him. It's on him. And we just all some of us are waters. Yeah, some of us are planters and some of us are harvesters. And some of us, you know, like, you may have experienced all three,

Carolina Horton 17:57
we are all right at different times. Yeah, completely agree. Totally. So,

 

Cindy Spencer 18:02
so don't Yeah, anybody listening, you know, it's just, you don't know where the person to at. And you may just be at the beginning of their even hearing about God. Or you may be right at that time where they've been hearing about it from somebody that's been that greasy wheel you know, just like, like telling them about it and telling you I finally you come along and then

Carolina Horton 18:26
boom, there's a nice, when is that divine alignment that you Yeah, answers to somebody's prayers. Maybe their mom has been praying for years. And a stranger comes and tells you the love of God. And it just hits them like a train. And they get wrecked and Holy Spirit shows up in your just changed. Exactly. I can do that.

Cindy Spencer 18:48
No, only he can. He can. And that's the beauty of it. Because then it takes a lot of that pressure off of us. Yeah, we're just we're the hands and the feet and the mouthpiece in his heart. And then he does, he brings the increase he does that's right. And how about you Jeremy, how would you explain sharing your faith? And yes, someone that either hasn't done it before or maybe nervous about it?

Jeremy Horton 19:12
Right? Well, when I first like I said, when I first got saved, I was listening to Todd White, and he'll go out and pray for people for healing. So I did the same thing. I was like, wow, I want to see this thing too. So I started first started with my family. When if one of our kids got a headache, we pray for them. And then they got healed. So I was like, Okay, I'm gonna take it outside these walls now. So I started praying for people at grocery stores wherever we would go. And I would see healings most of the time, but sometimes I wouldn't see it. So I was left with the awkwardness, you know, in those times. And so I would really look for that thing. I will try to find people to go pray for all the time. But then I came to a place where I was feeling like, okay, I seen the person get healed. I want to see something bigger I want, I want to see them shift their way of thinking, I want to see them say Okay, first, I don't believe in a God, to now they believe in a God from what you've experienced. So I like to use my life as a walking testimony. I use it, I use my testimony. And I've been through so many things. So if he can do it for me, all the mess that I was in, I know that he can do it for anybody that's walking around right now. Exactly. So you know, it wasn't until last year when I was really feeling comfortable. Because you know, anything feels awkward when it's new, ya know? So I was really, it was something like that I really had to force myself to do because I knew that was my calling. So I always wanted to go after it. So even though the awkwardness, I did it, it just grew on me. So did it get more comfortable as Oh, wow? Like, it grew. It grew so much I got so comfortable. I'm comfortable doing it right now, I'm would go out anywhere, anywhere and do it. You know, we do it a lot, actually. So, you know, I'm really I really enjoy doing it. Because like my wife said, you know, we might just be that that person's parents answered prayers. Yeah. You know, really stirred my heart is that I have some family and friends who are dealing with some addiction and some stuff that I feel that the world and the enemy is snatching away from me. So I almost use that as a motivation, not just me operating out of love, like I always operate

out of love. And that's what God wants me to do. I'm working with God, but then I'm, I love just taking away what the enemy thought was his, and bringing it back to where it rightfully belongs, right. And so that's where I operate it. I'm thinking like, wow, like, I want somebody to go do this from family, my friends who are going through this stuff. So, you know, I see this world so messed up. I like this road, like crazy is getting crazy. But the good news is we are the life like Jesus is the life. And we're the answer like, so that's what that's my motivation. I just want to be able to be part of the solution. Yeah, I want to be a part of the solution I want. I want to see this world transformed. You know, and if Jesus can transform me, at one at a time, then that person in front of me, can be transformed to and imagine what that can do for that person's all the people in his life. He could go transform those people. And those people can transform more people. So like, it's all Jesus, you know, I mean, it is

Cindy Spencer 22:51
a gift that keeps going on.

Jeremy Horton 22:52
Yeah, yeah. So why complain about the world? I don't want to I want to go be a part of the solution. Yeah, that's my goal.

Cindy Spencer 23:00
Yeah. And that's that light that I seeing you guys? Yeah. It's love. Yeah. You just have that love. And it's his love, that's right? in you because you received his love, right? And until we receive His love, which is another thing I struggled with the first 20 years in my faith, and was believing that he could love me. Yeah. But we operate in loving others through the love that we receive from him. That's right. Right, right. And that's what you guys did. Now, obviously, I have it now. And I got that revelation over the last 20 years, you know, 17 years, but it took me a long time. It wasn't instantaneous. And so, um, that's the thing I think that I picked up on you two so much is that love. And I knew you're young in the Lord. And I'm like, wow, yeah. They're just like little power balls, you know, and they're so full of light and love you just when you guys, minister to people, yeah. And like, you know, I watch you when you pray for people at church and stuff. Yeah. You guys just are pouring out Jesus' love. That's right. It's just so evident. And people know it, people feel it, people see it. And so that's what we all can have, you know, just by receiving, yeah, it's just receiving, because he's already done it. And he just wants us to believe that's right. And then be at rest in that. But like you, I'm very analytical. I spent a lot of years analyzing everything instead of just receiving it now. I'm all about like, let's receive, you know, I mean, that's why I named my ministry. The ministry that I run for the last couple of years is called The Joy of Receiving Love, just because that's where the joy comes in. Yeah. You know, is when you receive His love. Yes. Right. And and then you pour it back out. And that does a whole nother thing inside of you. Yeah. When when you receive His love, there's like, wow, you know, there's so much excitement. And then when you give it out to another person, yeah. And you see their light come on, and their heart touched. Yeah, there's nothing like it. Yes,

 

Jeremy Horton 25:18
for sure.

Cindy Spencer 25:19
There's nothing like it. So, um, the other thing I would like to have you share with is, if there's anybody listening that maybe doesn't know Jesus, and Jeremy, if you would like to

Jeremy Horton 25:33
Yeah. You know, if there's anybody listening right now, who would like to have Jesus in their life or even wants to rededicate their life to Jesus right now, I just want you to, like, just genuinely believe and repeat after me. We're going to pray for Jesus to come into our lives and enter our hearts right now. Okay, so, right now, just repeat after me. Dear Lord Jesus, I open the door to my heart. I say sorry for my sin.

I choose to follow you

and make you the Lord of my life.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen, man. Yes, yes.

 

Cindy Spencer 26:18
And so if anybody answered that call and prayed with Jeremy, we would love it if you would contact me at my email address is [email protected]. And let us know that you just received Jesus so we can celebrate with you. And if you have a Bible, Luke 15 shares three parables that Jesus tells about how heaven celebrates heaven last to celebrate with a new salvation. So we'd like to join heaven and you and celebrating your note new birth experience and just to answer any questions. And, you know, I just want to thank you guys so much for coming today. And that was powerful just for people to get to see that there are so many different ways that your salvation looks. And these are just three ways there's way more because God is so about us and who we are and our personality. And just, it doesn't matter what we struggled with, or what we knew right away. Doesn't matter. His love is always pursuing us. And in Philippians 1:6, it says, the work that God starts he always finishes right. Yeah, so we are all a work in progress, no matter if you started off, you know, right from the get go or not. Right? We are all a work in progress our whole life. And we're always growing, there's always things to grow in. And like they're being able to grow their kids and, and be able to impart to their kids these truths at a young age, right? So just imagine what their kids are going to be like as adults compared to what you know, they had to go through as adults. So there's just so many amazing things. And truly, my favorite word to say about salvation is it's the greatest miracle, there is. It's greater than even healing because, without salvation, all of that is I mean, it's nothing, nothing, right? Yeah, it doesn't mean anything. So we just thank you for coming today and being a part of our podcast today, and we just hope you all have a great day. Bye. Have a good day. Remember God loves you.

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