I just want to share a very special time with you all!!!! May 31st at close to midnight I was baptized! First, let me begin by letting you know it was completely Holy Spirit inspired - or I would have had all my friends and loved ones there to partake. It was so precious to me as I was able to have my precious husband Trent baptize me & our niece Brittany & nephew Jeff there as witnesses!
You know, I was baptized 3 times when I was younger. The first time, I was 12 I think & I was sprinkled with water at the church I grew up at. Then, again I believe that following summer with my grandfather, Baba. He was an ordained minister. Then at a youth camp somewhere in my teens. Through all this reflecting I was praying and asking myself - "when did I really give my heart to Jesus?" I think I went through so many religious ceremonies & sat in many pews at different churches. I was a pretty good person. Well, lets not focus on the blatant rebellion I had in my teens & college years..... Anyway, the point being. I may have had an encounter with Jesus. But I can sadly say, there was no change in my life! I tried to be a good person, but still so caught up in the world & all it had to offer. My thoughts were not on Jesus! He was not Lord of my life! I was the Lord of my life & the things I wanted were the Lord of my life!!!! This is a hard thing to swallow - but praise the Lord He broke up the shallow ground of my heart so that I was no longer deceived!!!! So I have been living for Jesus for 2 years now, although I was around "church" most of my life. It was such an honor to be obedient to the Word to express my repentance, my faith in Christ and my commitment to come! My commitment and pledge that I belong to Christ and have died and risen with him! A testimony of my faith!
It is a mighty thing to call yourself a Christian & quite an Honor!
If the Holy Spirit is tugging at your heart, I pray you would completely surrender to Jesus as Lord of your life!!! To make a decision today and from this day forward to live for Jesus & be a CHRISTIAN!
So, what is biblical salvation......Here is an article from my Bible Every Christian desires to have assurance of salvation, i.e., the certainty that when Christ returns or when death comes, he or she will go to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven (Php 1:23). John's purpose in writing the first letter is that God's people may have ethat assurance (1 Jn 5:13). Note that nowhere in the letter does John state that a past experience of conversation constitutes an assurance or guarantee of salvation. To assume we possess eternal life based solely on a past experience or on a faith that is no longer vital is a grave error. This letter sets out nine ways for us to know that we are in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
1. We have assurance of eternal life if we believe "in the name of the Son of God" (1 Jn 5:13; cf. 4:15, 5:1, 5). There is no eternal life or assurance of salvation without an earnest faith in Jesus Christ that confesses him as God's Son, sent to be our Lord and Savior.
2. We have assurance of eternal life if we are honoring Christ as Lord of our lives and are sincerely trying to obey his commands. "We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him" (1 Jn 2:3-5; cf. 3:24; 5:2; Jn 8:31, 51; 14:21-24; 15:9-14; Heb 5:9).
3. We have assurance of eternal life if we love the Father and the Son rather than the world, and if we overcome the influence of the world. "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he does - comes not from the Father but from the world" (1Jn 2:15-16; cf. 4:4-6; 5:4)
4. We have assurance of eternal life if we habitually and persistently practice righteousness rather than sin. "If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him" (1 Jn 2:29). On the other hand, "He who does what is sinful is of the devil" (1 Jn 3:7-10)
5. We have assurance of eternal life if we love our brothers and sisters. "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.....This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence" (1 Jn 3:14, 19)
6. We have assurance of eternal life if we are conscious of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. "And this is how we know that he (Jesus Christ) lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (1 Jn 3:24). Again, "We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us his Spirit" (1 Jn 3:14)
7. We have assurance of eternal life if we strive to follow Jesus' example and live as he lived. "Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did" (1 Jn 2:6)
8. We have assurance of eternal life if we believe, accept and remain in the "Word of life," i.e., the living Christ (1 Jn 1:1), and in the original message of Christ and the NT apostles. "See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father" (1 Jn 2:24)
9. We have assurance of eternal life if we have an earnest longing and an unbending hope for Christ's return to receive us to himself. "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure." (1 Jn 3:2-3)
(The Full Life Study Bible)
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