I’m not going to sit here and beat you over your head with a Bible. I’m just going to tell you my experience with Jesus in my life.
I was raised in a religious family. There was hardly a Sunday or Wednesday I didn’t go to church, it was just a way of life. As I look back now, I’m thankful for that.
I talked about the fact of my birth complications in my More About Me page… I feel strongly that I wouldn’t be alive today or in a lot worse shape if it wasn’t for God looking out for me. I don’t know the reasons why I was born like I was and I doubt I ever will while I’m alive, but I do know that God knows, and He doesn’t make mistakes.
When I was twelve years old I was baptized and that’s when I consider myself being saved. For a couple of weeks before that happened, I had a nagging voice telling me it was time to get baptized, I finally gave in on April 4, 1993… just five weeks before my thirteenth birthday…
My teenage years would become some of the darkest I’ve ever experienced in my life. When I was thirteen we moved from Oklahoma to Mississippi and my world got turned on it’s head. Everything I was comfortable with was gone and I didn’t know how to cope so I fell into a deep depression that wouldn’t end completely for another four years. The new kids I was with in school would make fun of me walking down the hall, walking down steps. I would come home crying and my mom couldn’t believe I was having so much trouble since I was well liked at my schools in the past. Looking back at the problems I had at my new school, I’m pretty sure at my old schools other people did make fun of me, they just didn’t to my face.
To make a long story shorter, during those four years, I ended up in two mental hospitals, saw numerous doctors, was on multiple medications. By 1996 I dropped out of school completely and got my G.E.D. in 1997.
By that summer things finally started to turn around for me. In 1998 I moved back to Oklahoma to go to college. I wasn’t used to the freedom or the responsibility of being in college due to the fact I had a sheltered non existent high school experience. I got involved in parties and the usual teenage experiences. My school work suffered, of course, and I failed nearly all my classes. So after one semester I withdrew, since it was too expensive to continue with.
For the next three years I just did my own thing, I left God totally out of the picture and my life in all ways went down hill.
There’s a lot of debate in the church of whether people can lose their salvation. In my opinion, God never leaves you, but I do believe you can walk away from God. I think it is nearly impossible to be without sin, as only Jesus has been the only man in history that was sinless. However, it all comes down to maintaining your relationship.
If you had a car that you only got the oil changed on every 10,000 miles, it wouldn't last as long as a car you had the oil changed every 3,000 miles...
Same goes with your soul. If you maintain your relationship, you're most likely not going to break down into sin.
In all the sins I’ve committed and mistakes I’ve made after I was saved, I’ve always known God was still there, even if I didn’t want to acknowledge Him.
So, my point of all this is… it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, where you’ve been, or anything like that. God is here for you and still loves you. That’s why He sent Jesus to earth so we wouldn’t have to be eternally away from Him. All you have to do is admit that you’re a sinner, ask for forgiveness and repent… When Jesus was confronted with the woman caught in adultery He told her to “Go and sin no more.” Her sins were forgiven. What a feeling it is to know you’re sins are totally wiped out like they never happened!
I’ll never be perfect and I struggle day after day with temptation and sin, yet God has been faithful to me and I know He can be faithful to you…
All you have to do is ask.
Finally, I'd like to say that I have some stories how sin can really mess you up. At this point in time, I'd rather not air my dirty laundry on the internet.
So, if you'd like to hear about what can happen when you live in sin, e-mail me. I guess you could call it my "Scared Straight" type of program.
Ten Commandments
If you follow these, it's hard to fall into sin.
"You shall have no other gods before me."
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments."
"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you."
"You shall not murder."
"You shall not commit adultery."
"You shall not steal."
"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
