A Day After Salvation is one of several books I wrote while driving big rigs across the country. The book focuses on God's grace in salvation, the reality of spiritual growth, and the assurance that the God who begins the work of regeneration is faithful to complete it.

The first edition, which was unpublished in June 2019, is still available on our website at www.witheredhand.org. It has a blue background with a white staircase leading up to Heaven.

Later, the A Day After Salvation: Revised Edition, honoring the legacy of Don Stewart, with a foreword by Dr. W.V. Grant, was published on August 2, 2023. Just after this, Apostle Don transitioned to glory on January 24, 2024.

To honor his passing, a beautiful Commemorative Edition of this book was published by Ingram Books on January 7, 2026, celebrating his life and legacy, and is available on Amazon. It has a beautiful yellowish cover with a cross, Jesus under it, with people looking up at Jesus.

Why I felt led to write A Day After Salvation!

Growing up, I heard many church pastors mix law with grace, telling people they could have salvation today and lose it tomorrow. They would attempt to preach bondage to the people instead of grace, telling some of the women that wearing makeup makes them look like their gall bladder had burst. They would preach against women, including elderly women wearing pants, as an abomination before God, and God help someone if they left an abusive wife or one had left them.
Some pastors expect immediate maturity after salvation, but Scripture presents salvation as a completed act and the beginning of ongoing grace, emphasizing God's faithfulness throughout the process to deepen believers' understanding and keep them engaged.

Through years of suffering through a nervous breakdown while driving the big rigs coast to coast, I have learned something about grace, and my book, A Day After Salvation, is an open roadmap to deliverance. In it, I teach that a believer is genuinely saved, genuinely forgiven, and genuinely accepted by God when they give their heart and life to the Lord. However, they are not yet fully mature. A newborn child is no less alive because they cannot walk, and a new Christian is no less saved because they have much to learn.

Before the foundation of the world, God chose His people according to His purpose and grace, showing that salvation is initiated by God's faithfulness rather than dependent on human effort, thereby deepening believers' assurance in God's unchanging commitment.

My book teaches that because salvation originates with God, spiritual growth does not rest solely upon human effort. The believer is called to pursue holiness and obedience, but behind every step stands the preserving grace of God. He who began the good work is the One who will carry it through to completion.
This truth should inspire humility and patience, reminding believers that growth takes time and no one is finished yet.

Target practice provides a simple illustration. Missing the bullseye does not mean the shooter has abandoned the target. It means they are still learning, adjusting, and improving. Likewise, believers often miss the mark.
In target practice, even skilled marksmen miss the center from time to time. Missing the bullseye does not mean they have forgotten the target. It means they are still aiming, learning, and adjusting. Failures in word, thought, and deed are part of the growth process, encouraging believers to persevere with hope rather than despair. They stumble, misunderstand, and struggle. Yet their failures do not prove that God has abandoned His work in them. Rather, they reveal their ongoing need for the grace that saved them in the first place.

The Christian life is not sustained by perfection but by God's faithfulness. The day after salvation, and every day thereafter, believers stand in the same grace that first brought them to Christ. Their confidence is not found in how quickly they mature, but in the God who called them, redeemed them, and promises to complete what He started.
The story of salvation is ultimately not about how firmly we hold on to God. Still, about how faithfully He holds on to us, and one of the greatest misconceptions in the church is the belief that spiritual maturity should arrive immediately after conversion. While salvation is instantaneous, growth is progressive.

God does not save a person and then demand instant perfection. Instead, He begins a process of transformation that continues throughout the believer's life. The new believer often carries old habits, old fears, and incomplete understanding. This should not surprise us. Regeneration changes the heart immediately, but spiritual maturity develops over time. The same grace that saves is the grace that teaches, corrects, strengthens, and matures.

The evidence of new life is not perfection; it is growth. Even slow growth is still growth. God is patient with His children, and His people should learn to be patient with one another as well. When God saves a sinner, He assumes full responsibility for the work He begins. Salvation is not a partnership in which God starts the work and leaves the rest to human ability. He is both the Author and the Finisher of faith. This truth provides comfort for struggling believers. Many become discouraged when they see remaining sin in their lives. They expected the Christian life to be easier, cleaner, and faster than it has proven to be. Yet their struggles do not surprise God.

The believer's confidence rests not in the strength of their grip on Christ but in Christ's grip on them. The God who called them from death to life is committed to completing His purpose. Every lesson learned, every failure redeemed, and every step of growth bears witness to His faithful hand. The difference between the believer and the unbeliever is not the absence of failure but the presence of God's transforming work. The believer grieves over sin, seeks forgiveness, and continues moving toward Christ. The very struggle against sin is evidence that God is at work within them. Grace does not excuse sin, but His grace does sustain the sinner whom He is changing.

The Slow Miracle of Sanctification, "Held by Grace", and "Learning to Walk After Being Born" is the core heart of my book: Hence, Salvation is God's work from beginning to end, and spiritual growth is the gradual unfolding of what God has already begun. The Holy Scripture speaks about a rest being available to the people of God. This book will help lead you into that rest. For example, it would be like asking someone to give you a ride to the store.
There are two ways to ride, but one requires you to hold on. You can climb on and hold the hood; if you hold tight, you will get there. But why not get inside and enjoy the ride?

In closing, the Holy Word of God declares in Philippians 1:6:KJV Being confident of this very thing, that He which begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Hence, since He is the one who began the work, He will be the one who will finish the work, and all that is required of us is to be obedient and allow Him to do it.

International Evangelist Jerry W. Hulse, Ph.D. Miracle Life Church International