Mason’s Story
The way I grew up left me distrustful of those who call themselves Christians. I think God had at least left me with a reverence for the word. But I also lived my entire life behind a wall, hiding from his people. I remember a time when I was overseas and I bought a reference Bible and Strong’s Concordance, and I said, I’m going to figure this out. And I didn’t figure it out at all. And despite the fact that I didn’t figure it out, looking back, I see that God still gently pushed me, nudged me, never stopped forgiving me, inviting me and loving me.
I see that God still gently pushed me, nudged me, never stopped forgiving me, inviting me and loving me. Click To TweetEven though I didn’t know that then, I do now. And one of these times when he sent me an invitation, I just remember listening to the Bible and I came home and I was so excited and I told Serena, this Jesus guy is amazing. I could just feel it. And it just, all at once, scales didn’t literally fall out of my eyes, but it was close. It wasn’t even until then that she told me that she and her mom had been praying every single day that I would find Jesus. And her mother said that she just knew that in there my heart was good and that I would find him.
As a man, we all know that you have responsibilities to our families, to take care of them financially, spiritually, and make them feel valued and loved. But sometimes I think it’s easy to get wrapped up in taking care of our families that we forget how important it is that he’s also inviting us to have a personal relationship. We can’t let ourselves forget to have a personal relationship with him and with this baptism, I promise to keep pursuing.
Serena’s Story
From a young age, I have known about Jesus. I’ve known what he did on the cross for me. I knew that following him was the right thing. I knew that going to church was the right thing and surrounding myself in a godly atmosphere was the right thing. Life took its toll and I strayed. And I would like to say that I strayed as far as anyone could because that’s how real it felt. I had always had Jesus in my back pocket. But if I told anyone that he was the true leader of my life, I would have been severely lying. I had put my faith in myself, unknowingly. God had to pluck me out of my worldly existence. Every day I would wake up and crave the Word of God because I knew that that was the only way I would survive the day.
There was a point in my life where Jesus asked me, “I know you know about me, but do you know me? And if that answer is yes, then you better hang on.”
In the process of dying to myself over this last year has not been easy. And he made the cross so very real and so very personal to me that the only option that I had was to completely surrender my life to him.
God, I promise that through this baptism I will submit myself to you. My life is no longer mine to live.
My life is no longer mine to live. Click To Tweet