I finally decided to give my life to Christ and I feel amazing!
I'm 31 years old, I've never really engaged in the faith until very recently despite attending church throughout the years.
I've studied many religious and occult practices throughout my life, used to be actively engaged in the occult and even have a few tattoos which are tied to those pagan practices.
Eventually I delved into Judaism and considered joining a Jewish temple but in my studies of the bible I was turned on to Seventh Day Adventist Protestantism. This organization is 100% biblically based and the bible is what helped me to come through my personal spiritual awakening and helped me build my personal relationship with Jesus. All of the studies I've done and sermons I hear from them are backed up with the bible and not dependent upon tradition. (Yes they also refer to Ellen G White's books to help with further perspective and comparison of the world's history to biblical history, they do not worship her and they certainly don't put her words above the bible, or even on the same level.) The biggest thing that bothers me about most "protestant" churches is that they still keep the Catholic Sunday which is based on Pagan Sun Worship, and they ignore the bible and the 10 commandments. I do not believe the 10 commandments were done away with due to being "nailed to the cross" like they try to claim, because there are many bible verses that explicitly say to keep the commandments. Sunday worship is not biblically based at all, and Seventh Day Adventists are the first group I found that actually honor the biblical doctrine, so I appreciate that.
Since attending church with family at an early age, there's a Pastor who's been in my life since I was probably 13 or younger. We've followed him to various churches over the years and through his own mission he started which recently absolved. I asked him to perform the baptism for me, so that meant a lot. He baptized my grandma and my sister. And just by chance the pastor who baptized my Mom was there and he laid hands on me and prayed for me during the ceremony. It was not even planned that way, which is a testament to the grace of God.
It was a pretty awesome experience. I feel great now that I'm finally ready to commit myself to my faith and rebuke sin in my life.
I'm still learning a lot and going through studies. I have many questions and occasional doubts, I have some burning questions, but I decided I cannot rely on any sermon or other person's explanation and just accept it, I have to learn the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek behind what's being translated, and I have to apply my own understanding and make up my own mind regarding their possible interpretations. When I question something, I do sometimes bring it to the council and elders and I do get advice and perspective, but even then, some things I disagree with and have come to my own conclusions.
That's exactly how religion should be and that's the problem I had with Jewish and Catholic and most protestant's reliance on tradition where the priest has to dictate everything to you or rely on traditional understandings of biblical concepts instead of you reading for yourself. However regardless of what I'm studying I have to keep in mind and I will always remember that my personal experience with faith and witnessing the Grace of God, the success of prayer, and the actual real tangible PEACE that comes with having a relationship with Jesus and reading the Word, cannot be taken away by anything that comes from the physical world. There's no true peace without God in your life.
If you're considering getting baptized, talk to your church elders and pastor about it. They can point you in the right direction for study materials and to decide if you want to do it or not. I'm always open for questions but I don't get on here much, so I'll reply when I do check it.
Thanks for reading, Pray Always! God bless you and be with you
This post was edited by Ariana on May 14 2024 11:22pm