Before Christ saved me, I believed that God existed and that was the extent of my spirituality. I certainly didn’t feel that faith in Christ alone was necessary for salvation. I felt that most of us are good people, and therefore, we deserve to go to heaven. I felt that God knows we’re imperfect, so He understands and accepts our sins.
I used to own an event coordinating company, and one of our services was renting and delivering large inflatable trampolines, called moon bounces, to children’s parties. Upon pick-up, the process of deflating them, rolling them up, and hauling them away is extremely exhausting. One night, in the midst of trying to move a 400 pound slide from a client’s back yard, I collapsed, from complete exhaustion, and was unable to continue. It was dark, and there was no one around to help. I was beyond frustrated and didn’t know what to do. Then, suddenly, I felt convicted to pray and ask God for help, so I did. I had no strength to move the unit at all much less the twenty-five or so feet it needed to be moved to reach the truck, but after I prayed, by God’s grace, I did it.
Something changed in my heart that night. I wasn’t saved that night, but after that, my desires changed. I desired to read and study the Bible, which I had never done, and I also began attending Grace Community Church. I realized that up until that point I had lived my life for me. My love was for myself and my own pursuits for money, sexual gratification, and worldly recognition, but not for God, and Romans 6:23 states the consequences of such a sinful life.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
But why Jesus Christ? Because only He lived a perfect, holy, and righteous life, and by dying for our sins, that means that He took our sin, and in exchange gave us His perfect, holy, and righteous life, so we may be seen righteous in the eyes of God, for those who believe.
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” -- 2Co 5:21
Only by God’s grace did this become true of my heart, and I repented of my sins, asked God to forgive me, and made Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. This was a little less than a year ago, and since then, I have turned away from sexual immorality, a self-centered, money-hungry lifestyle, and I have much more love for people because I realize how much God loves me. My life no longer belongs to the world but to Christ who saved me. For this reason, I want to be baptized, not because it is necessary for salvation, but to publicly declare my obedience to God and to symbolize my spiritual union with our Lord Jesus Christ.
I used to own an event coordinating company, and one of our services was renting and delivering large inflatable trampolines, called moon bounces, to children’s parties. Upon pick-up, the process of deflating them, rolling them up, and hauling them away is extremely exhausting. One night, in the midst of trying to move a 400 pound slide from a client’s back yard, I collapsed, from complete exhaustion, and was unable to continue. It was dark, and there was no one around to help. I was beyond frustrated and didn’t know what to do. Then, suddenly, I felt convicted to pray and ask God for help, so I did. I had no strength to move the unit at all much less the twenty-five or so feet it needed to be moved to reach the truck, but after I prayed, by God’s grace, I did it.
Something changed in my heart that night. I wasn’t saved that night, but after that, my desires changed. I desired to read and study the Bible, which I had never done, and I also began attending Grace Community Church. I realized that up until that point I had lived my life for me. My love was for myself and my own pursuits for money, sexual gratification, and worldly recognition, but not for God, and Romans 6:23 states the consequences of such a sinful life.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
But why Jesus Christ? Because only He lived a perfect, holy, and righteous life, and by dying for our sins, that means that He took our sin, and in exchange gave us His perfect, holy, and righteous life, so we may be seen righteous in the eyes of God, for those who believe.
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” -- 2Co 5:21
Only by God’s grace did this become true of my heart, and I repented of my sins, asked God to forgive me, and made Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. This was a little less than a year ago, and since then, I have turned away from sexual immorality, a self-centered, money-hungry lifestyle, and I have much more love for people because I realize how much God loves me. My life no longer belongs to the world but to Christ who saved me. For this reason, I want to be baptized, not because it is necessary for salvation, but to publicly declare my obedience to God and to symbolize my spiritual union with our Lord Jesus Christ.