One Christian Life

I Got Saved, Now What?

2009-11-10T19:34:00.011-05:00

So you felt the Holy Spirit tugging on your heart to make a change in your life and you listened. Good for you! Now what do you do?

I'm so afraid that many new converts are faced with this question and often end up going back to exactly the same lifestyle because they do not understand the changes they must make in their lives. Sadly Christianity has come down to this simple little prayer that you pray and it ends there. That is not what God intended for us, and I'm convinced that people who don't start making changes in their lives are not truly saved. I had/have this incredible want to be "Christ-like", and you should too!

So first thing. Were you truly called to be saved? The Bible says in John 6:44 "no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." You will feel different inside. There will be a whole new perspective on life. Things that caused you to sin you will no longer want to be around. You will begin to seek ways to be closer to God and do things for his glory.

1 John is a good book to read to find out if you are truly saved and if you are going in the right direction. It says in 1 John 5:13 "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life."

1 John 1:6 says "If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." What this is saying is that living any other way but God's way is living in darkness. Galatians 5:19-26 helps us know what is right and what is wrong. "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another." We must walk in light just as God walks in the light! Light meaning goodness, not in darkness meaning evil.

1 John 1:8 "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." We have to be aware of the sin in our life. We are all sinners, all of us. Not one, except Jesus, has been sinless. You have to accept this. Romans 2:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." We must confess our sins. When you pray, acknowledge the sin in your life. Do you have problems with lying, gossip, envy? These are just a few examples. You should be begging God when you pray to deliver you from the sin in your life, to help you realize the areas you need to work on.

1 John 2:3-17 "And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. " Exodus 20:3-18 "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image....You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain...Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy...Honor your father and your mother...You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet (want) your neighbor..." If it makes you more comfortable to see things in the New Testament Matthew 19:18-19 and Romans 13:9 restates most of these. Jesus adds a couple, such as Matthew 22: 37-39 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first Commandment. And a second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 5:19 tells us that "whoever relaxes one of the least of these Commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of Heaven". So in other words, God means what he says. Do this, don't do that...simple!

More to be written....

Why blog for God?

2009-10-25T09:25:00.000-04:00

I'm hoping that through you reading how God has done so much in my life, and others around me, that God, through me, may change your life.

I'm a sinner. We are all sinners (Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God). One of the biggest misconceptions about Christians is that we are perfect. I'm here to tell you we are not. It took me such a long time to realize this. I never understood why this one and that one professed being a Christian, but lived like a sinner. Well we all live like sinners. This is human nature(Romans 7:15-19 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good i want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing).

Now I'm not saying that you accept Jesus as your Lord and savior (being saved) and just go about your day like you did before. That you cannot do. Everyday you have to try to live like Christ. This can prove challenging, but with a little work everyday your life can be more fullfilling, happy and meaningful. I like this verse best to tell me the way that I should live. Galatians 5:16-26 walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

I think the unsaved are constantly searching for something. I've only been saved for two years and I know what it feels like. Now, I search for nothing. I have the complete truth to my exsistance and purpose from the Bible. It is all I need. I use the ESV (Englist Standard Version) to read from. It is an excellent, concise version of the bible. I know that because of the text of the KJV many have been turned away because they were unable to understand it fully. Well pick up an ESV. You won't be turned away, you'll be absolutely amazed.

Quoted from ESV.org "The ESV. The Bible for Life.
What makes the ESV Bible unique and special?
First and foremost, the ESV is special because the Bible itself is like no other book. The words of the Bible are the very Words of God. As Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63) Second, the ESV is special because it is a “word-for-word” translation. The Bible says every word was “breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16). For this reason, the ESV seeks to translate the original Greek and Hebrew words with the greatest possible accuracy and precision. Third, the ESV is special because it carries forward the great historic stream of Bible versions in English—with literary excellence, beauty, and depth of meaning, in a fresh and compelling way. The ESV is unique and special. It’s the Bible to read and treasure through all your life—a great choice for young and old, for daily reading and personal study, for church and family, for teaching and preaching, and for memorizing the words of life.

I hope you will continue to come back and read what my blog has to say and see what God has to offer. I know that God is working through me to reach people that I'll never meet. This is just one small thing I can do to serve the Lord!

All quotes are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version by Crossway Bibles

What is Baptism?

2009-09-20T12:38:00.002-04:00

After two years of being saved, finally I got baptized! Why the long wait? Well, I wanted to make sure that I was succeeding at being a Christian first. I didn't want to be baptized and still be mostly living for the world. I do believe that after you get saved you go through a growth period where your eyes are opened to the errors of your ways. Then you must work to fix all that. I think if I'd gotten baptized right after I was saved I may have continued in my sinful ways because I felt I had a sure shot into Heaven.

So you may ask yourself, what does it mean to be baptized, do I have to be baptized to go to Heaven and why get baptized? Well I'm going to give you my thoughts on these most common questions.

What does it mean to be baptized?

I love Matthew 3:13-17. It explains it perfectly and I never realized it until I was doing my research for this blog. The verse says:

" Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John [the baptist], to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the Heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from Heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

These five verses, to me, explain baptism perfectly. Read it slowly and carefully. First it gives us the reason of baptism in verse 15, "fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness". Now you may say what is the righteousness stuff the bible talks about. Well it means being right/just. So we are baptized to be right with God. To be obedient. Now in verse 16 it tells us what happens to us when we are baptized, "the Heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him". So now after we've been baptized heaven is open to us. We have a direct connection to God. Then the Spirit of God descends upon us. Then after we are baptized God looks at us and says "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" verse 17. We have made God happy by being obedient, doing something for him, to wash away our old worldly lives and begin this new spiritually clean life.

So do you have to be baptized to go to Heaven?

The answer to this is no. You do not have to be baptized to go to Heaven and this is why. Luke 23:42-43 "And he [criminal] said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." Jesus says this to one of the criminals hanging beside him on a cross. Now if this man can be saved right before death, not be baptized and then go to Heaven, same is true for us. Same is true for death bed conversions. People who are dieing in the hospital and get saved will more than likely not be baptized, but they will be in Heaven.

So why should we get baptized? Well, to show our obedience to God, to start a new spiritually clean life and to make God pleased with us. Isn't that a good feeling when God is pleased with us?

Background

2009-09-18T14:30:00.001-04:00

What good is me telling you how you should live if you don't know what my life has been like? So here is a quick summary of me.

I was born/reared in a very small town in eastern Tennessee. We attended church till I was about 8. My family wasn't into it, and my dad never went. I wanted it all though. I asked if I could get baptised, but was told I didn't fully understand what it meant. After we stopped going to church I continued to read my Bible. I found the KJV very confusing so my grandparents bought me the NIV. I started spending the nights with a friend so I could go to church. After a few Sundays it was brought to my attention that I was not using the "right" Bible. It embarrassed me and really turned me off. Plus the church I was frequenting just didn't seem real. It all seemed like this play and all the people were just acting the part. Is this the way Christians really are??? So i stopped going and stopped reading. I didn't want to be like those people.

I graduated highschool and found myself with a full workstudy scholarship to a religious college. I look back and realize that God was trying to direct my path. I didn't want to take that path and choose what I wanted to do instead. It ended in complete disaster. I fell into heavy drugs and alcohol. I decided after a semester and a half I was ruining my life, so I packed up and came home. I seeked out the drugs and found pretty much what I needed.

My boyfriend graduated college and we moved. I began thinking about my life and how I'd fallen so far from God. I started having sleepless nights, heart problems, anxiety, extreme fear and depression. I decided that there had to be more, so I ordered The Message by Eugene Peterson. Wow, what a difference from anything I'd ever read. It made so much sense. I began to want everything the Bible had to offer.

My husband and I got married. I continued to read in secret trying to figure everything out. I was still experiencing the problems described above so I went to the doctor. They told me I was healthy as a horse. So I came home and began to sort things out. What I needed all along was Jesus. I realized I wasn't saved and that if I died I was going to be apart from Him. I got on my knees and asked Jesus to forgive all the awful things I'd been doing the past 24 years. I was ready for a new life consumed by wanting to serve and live for God. The next few weeks all my health symptoms went away. I look back and know that God was calling me. He choose me and He is going to use me for His glory!

It has been incredible growing spiritually. I'd never go back to my sinful lifestyle. I still have areas that I'm working on, but I know I'm only going to overcome all this by the grace of God, the help of the Holy Spirit and through the belief of Jesus Christ!