My Momma's Testimony in Christ

The Birth of Snow White ~ by Mandy Franklin Allen

I am a simple woman. I enjoy serving my husband and children and most especially my Lord Jesus Christ, and the most important thing about me is really all about him. He is my magnificent obsession.

In fifth grade I went down for an altar call to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior by praying "The Sinner's Prayer." Only, that particular prayer had me invite him into my heart to clean it up, and to get forgiveness. The human heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked and can't really be cleaned up. We need an entirely new one! The Apostle Paul laments his former unredeemed condition in Romans chapter 7. Oh sure, we may be able to (by an act of our will) do this or that for good, and resist sin to a certain extent, but our efforts can't deal with our sin nature. Besides, those efforts are as filthy rags. Our sin nature must be replaced with a new, holy nature; one that is dead to sin, sins, and sinning- one that is born of God!

Consequently, that "sinner's prayer" served to deceive me into thinking Jesus came to just forgive my sins, rather than take them away so that I didn't have to sin them anymore. For many years I labored under the burden of trying to keep myself from sinning, while I still had a nature that was sold under sin. For all my strong devotion, pious self denial, and severe bodily discipline, it provided no help in conquering my evil desires (Col. 2:23).
And then one day, after years of church-going and Bible reading and struggling with secret sins (with some success but not total success), I became COMPLETELY fed-up with sin. I told the Lord that if there was nothing that could be done about my sinning, then I would rather he take me out, because I knew there was no way I could sin in heaven. I would rather die than to continue to obey his enemy, even if only occasionally. And in that genuine repentance, the Lord instantly opened my eyes to 1 John chapter 3, verse 9 in particular: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." Immediately a host of other verses that had been hidden from my understanding were revealed to me, and with a domino effect I understood that this is what it means to be "born again"! And since that moment, nearly two decades ago, I have not served sin. He made me, Mandy Franklin Allen, a new creation, holy and blameless... someone that never existed before! He forgave me for all my sins that are past (Romans 3:25), and delivered me from all my future sinning (Col. 2:11). He keeps me! I'm a kept woman! He doesn't require me or need me to be a co-savior with him. He wants, and deserves, and gets ALL the glory! He is able to save us to the uttermost, and he cleanses us from ALL unrighteousness!

This is an awesome mystery of the Gospel. Jesus said to repent and then believe, in that order. That seems backward to the natural mind, but HIS order is that with the measure of faith we have all been given, we must repent so that we CAN believe. The natural man cannot understand the things of God; we must be converted first. Oh Lord, you are too wonderful! Oh how you confound the wise with your holy ways.

And so, I get to spend all eternity praising him and worshiping him and bragging on what HE did for the once O-wretched-Mandy-stained-dark-as-crimson.... now made into fresh and fluffy Snow White! It is his work, it is marvelous, and it is finished!


Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Isa 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Matt. 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Col. 2:11 When you came to Christ, you were "circumcised," but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.

John 8:11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.