“Something happened to me.”
That was all I could think to say to my husband when he came downstairs from his nap on 9/21/2021. While he had been sleeping, something wonderful had happened to me that I couldn’t explain. I had been baptized with the Holy Spirit and saved by Jesus Christ within that previous hour. All of a sudden I felt all these new feelings and sensations I couldn’t even understand. I didn’t even know what had happened to me.
I couldn’t explain it. I suddenly felt brand new. I suddenly felt light, and also realized for the first time in my life how heavy the burden of sin I had carried was, now that it had been lifted off of me. I suddenly felt a deep peace. My heart felt different, and there was this new sensation in it, like a gently burning fire, that felt so exciting, exhilarating. I felt clean. I felt relieved. I knew that I would never be the same, and I knew my life was going to change. I knew nothing in the world could compare with what I was feeling and experiencing. I wanted to know more about Jesus and God’s word.
Gone was the angerness, pain, biterness, resentment, and unforgiveness, and grudges I had been holding against people, because Jesus had reached into my heart and pulled it all out as I was sitting on my couch in my living room trying to let all of it go. My healing from all the emotional hurts endured in my life had begun.
I was overwhelmed and bewildered. I wanted to be baptized, but how? Where? By whom? I wanted to go to church, but which one was the right one? Which denomination was even in line with the beliefs I didn’t even have formed yet from reading the scriptures; I had only just begun to read the New Testament? How was I supposed to even pick a church when I was a brand new babe in Christ? How could I tell between a good teacher of the scripture and a false teacher? How was I supposed to now live in my new walk with Jesus? What does a Christian’s walk with Him even look like? I had so many questions.
It has been 3 years now, and I have been through a lot. Jesus has taught me so much, and He has helped me to grow so much. He’s changed me into a completely different person from who I used to be, and for the better. Even in the midst of great challenges that I’m in right now, I still have that deep peace; I know that my eternal future is secure in Him. He has proved Himself to me over and over, and He has been so faithful, so patient, so kind, and so generous. He is and has been a great comfort to and for me. I feel joy unlike anything I have ever known, even in the midst of tears, stress, and anxiety. I feel new every single morning because His mercies are new every single morning. I know no matter what happens, He is going to work out all things for my good, and I have a glorious future in store for me through Him. I know I can never go back to the way I used to be, and I don’t want to; my future is in heaven and this world is not my home. I am merely passing through as a traveler here.
We all have a terminal disease called sin, and the penalty for sin is death, both spiritually and physically. We all know one day our bodies will die. When that happens, where will your eternal destination be? Will you spend it in heaven (spiritual life), or will you spending it in hell (spiritual death)? Sin separates us from God, and Jesus brought the remedy when He died on the cross for the sins of the world. Only those who follow Him will be able to enter heaven.
God’s salvation is for all people, but it is not automatic, and you only get to make your choice while you are still physically alive. Jesus is ready and waiting to receive you, if you believe in your heart that He died on the cross for your sins, and that God raised Him from the dead, if you will call out to Him, confess you have sinned, and ask Him to save you, to live in your heart, and to give you His Holy Spirit to help you live the way He desires you to live your remaining years here on earth. Time is not on your side, as you are never guaranteed to take your next breath or see tomorrow. I pray that you will choose wisely.
Eternity is a very long time to be wrong.
John 3:16-21
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
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