Fear and Trembling - Working Out Your Own Salvation

By Staci Waszil

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed""not only in my presence but now much more in my absence""continue to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. ""Philippians 2:12 To accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is the absolute most important decision you can make for your life. It truly does change everything. But there is a question that almost every new believer asks, "Now what?" The answer is to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. This is the walk every Christian must take, but many new believers end up walking away from their faith because they are never told what they need to do in order to draw near to their Savior, Jesus. All they are told is that this is the best decision they ever made, and how great their life will be now that God is in control, congratulations, and good luck on your new journey. All these things are true; however, when their life doesn't magically get better, and their worries don't disappear, some feel they have been lied to and that it was all nonsense. The truth is, it is not nonsense, and you were not lied to; you just needed to take an active role in your new Christian walk, and no one told you how to do that. By taking you on the journey of what God taught me, my hope is that you can better understand what your new Christian walk should be like, and how truly great it can be. Walking a Christian walk is not always easy, and the Bible never promised it would be, but it is completely worth the effort you put into it. God will never leave you nor forsake you. He will be with you every step of the way. To be wise is to know God. To have knowledge is to know His Word. To have wisdom is to hear His voice. ""Staci Waszil

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644164013

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Fear and Trembling - Working Out Your Own Salvation

Staci Waszil

Copyright © 2018 by Staci Waszil

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

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I would like to dedicate this book back to God,

who entrusted His words to flow through me.

Thank you, Lord.

May your words flow through the hearts of Your people!

You will seek me and find me

when you seek me with all your heart.

—Jeremiah 29:13

1

Testimony

When I opened my eyes and looked around, I was very confused at what I saw. I knew I was in a hospital room, but I was not sure why or even how long I had been there. The instant joy that I saw on the very tired, worn-out face of my sister, told me that it had probably been a while. The strangest part was, in that moment, I can still remember the overwhelming sense of peace that I had. I wasn’t scared, upset, or even worried, just calm and peaceful. There was never a feeling of something being wrong with me. Everything in my entire being, in that moment, said I was okay.

Still no spoken words between my sister and I, I began to assess the condition of my body. My head was hurting and there was pain when I tried to move it to look at myself. First, I took a deep breath and lifted my right arm up to see a bandage from my elbow to wrist. Everything seemed to be moving and working pretty good though. My legs were covered by a blanket, so there was no way to see any bandages, although I could see my toes wiggling under the blanket. Thank God, I was not paralyzed! However, I found that my right leg was able to move on its own and my left leg was not. I decided to come back to that problem after my assessment was complete. When I made it to my left arm to complete my damage report, I couldn’t move it. Taking another deep breath and trying really hard this time . . . still nothing. Upon realizing that not only could I not move my arm, but there was not even a feeling of an arm being there, I began to panic a little bit. Turning my head to see if my arm was there was not an option because I was also having trouble moving my head. As a tear rolled down my cheek, my eyes turned back to my sister, who at this point was crying also. I managed to mutter the words, What happened?

It was June and I was living in Winter Springs, Florida, at the time, getting ready to go back to school for nursing. Knowing that I would not be able to go home for quite a while, I had decided to return home, to Green, Ohio, for my twenty-first birthday, before starting school. Four days after my birthday on June 18, 1995, my roommate, Daniel, his girlfriend, and I, set out to return back to Florida. I was very heartbroken, because the entire time I was home, I knew that I wanted to stay and not go back. At first, it just felt like homesickness, but then it turned into a strong need to be home. I had spent pretty much my entire savings moving to Florida, getting an apartment, and setting up everything to go to school; there was simply no resources left for me to return home. All that would’ve needed to be said was, Mom, Dad, I want to come home, but I need help, but my pride won the battle, so we packed my Geo Tracker and hit the road. We filled the tank, jumped on 77 South, and we were off to Florida. I laid the back of the passenger seat down, closed my eyes, and began to pray, Lord, please, I feel very strongly that I need to be back in Ohio, I don’t have the money to move back, but if it is Your will that I be back in Ohio, then I know that You will provide the way. You have shown me where I need to be, so I am asking that You make it happen. Thank You, Lord, for all You do in my life and all the blessings I have received. In Jesus’s name, I pray. Amen! That was the last thing that I remember until I opened my eyes and saw my sister’s face.

There was a bad accident, Stephanie said.

Where am I? I replied.

You are in the hospital in Charleston, West Virginia.

How did I end up here?

Well, Daniel, who was driving, ran off the road near Edens Fork Exit. Which happened to be only about ten miles from my sister’s house. When he whipped the wheel to go back on the road, the car flipped several times.

Oh my gosh! You’re kidding me! Are Daniel and Sara okay?

They are fine, Daniel had minimal injuries and was discharged after three days, Sara had one surgery and a broken bone, but she was discharged also. They are probably already back in Florida by now.

So how long have I been asleep?

Well today is day twelve, it is June 30. The accident happened on the eighteenth.

Really? Why has it been so long? What is wrong with me? And why can’t I feel my arm?

Stephanie began to tell me the entire story of what happened. Apparently, Daniel lost control of the car and it went off the road. When he was turning back onto the road, the front tire blew, and the rim dug into the road, causing the car to flip several times, coming to an abrupt stop against the guardrail. Being a convertible, and with Sara riding in the back, the top came off of the Tracker, and she hit the road along with it, causing her to suffer a broken collarbone and road rash on her shoulder and head. Daniel went the entire way with the car, sustaining several bumps and bruises, several cracked ribs, and a collapsed lung. I, on the other hand, according to the eye witness, flew out through the sun roof about halfway through the flipping, landed on a guardrail, then hit the road. As a result, the left side of my body was pretty much crushed, and the right side suffered a lot of road rash. The first week after the accident, I went through five different surgeries. First, they had to fix the joint at my left big toe; it had folded forward and the bone went through the bottom of my foot. Then they had to reconstruct my left knee with a plate and four screws. My left arm was crushed from my elbow to my shoulder and was pieced together using two rods, a plate, a hinge, and seventeen screws. The left side of my face and part of the eye socket was shattered and is now a metal plate. Finally, the right side of my face, right arm, right knee, and top of my right foot was scrubbed and all the debris flushed out, and several parts of my body had to have skin grafts and cosmetic surgery to repair it. She also told me that at some point during the initial flipping, after my seatbelt broke and before I actually flew out of the car, I hit the top of the car next to the sunroof, causing two huge gashes in the top of my head, a minor brain bleed, and a compression fracture in the C5 vertebra in my neck. The severity of my situation was becoming very clear, although not quite completely sinking in.

What about my arm? Why can’t I feel or move my arm, Steph?

Well, there was a lot of nerve damage along with the breaks.

I’m sure she could hear the