Growing up in Baton Rouge, I don’t remember a time when my parents didn’t bring me to church. When I was about 9, I got baptized because one of my friends dared me to go down front and ask to be baptized. To prove I wasn’t scared I did it. I believed in Jesus just like I did George Washington, but I sure wasn’t trusting him for anything in my life, certainly not salvation or as my Lord.
Nothing changed until the summer before my 9th grade. I had gotten very rebellious and was well on the path to joining my friends who were experimenting with drugs. That summer my parents MADE ME go to church camp. I hated most of it, so me and a couple other boys would sneak out of the cabins at night to smoke and run around then I’d sleep all day during the church functions.
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
The last night however, the counselors planned a bonfire at the river. Now that was one camp function I was not going to miss. But the counselors wouldn’t let anyone put a stick in the fire unless they told the group what they thought heaven or hell would be like there. I had never even given it any thought until that moment. Afterwards, I spoke with a camp counselor who told me that if I was going to go to heaven I would know because, she said “these things are written that you may KNOW that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13).”
I prayed right there to trust Christ as my Lord and Savior.
I knew I was changed, completely changed. I broke away from the so-called friends in the neighborhood and developed new friends from Church. That summer my old neighborhood friends turned heavily to drugs while I turned to the Lord. I spent the next year praying about what to do now. I knew I was saved but I didn’t know how to live as a Christian.
I also couldn’t wait to go to Church camp the next summer. During that summer camp, I saw God do miraculous things that grew my faith, love and understanding of Him. But my real growth as a Christian came about 10 years later when my newlywed wife and I moved to AR and I attended the University of Arkansas for a PhD degree. The Head of the Electrical Engineering Department, Dr. Neil Schmidt, and his wife took us in for a 1 year program of intense mentoring and Bible study. For the first time in our lives we were studying God’s word, not just hearing it, memorizing His word, and seeing it lived out in other’s lives.
Studying and Memorizing God’s Word Radically Changed Our Lives!
Since that time we have never been the same. We have seen God do so many miracles, used us in so many ways and have truly had a blessed marriage, career, and life. There is a reason I was awarded a Fellow in two science societies and it was not because of my intellect or abilities; it has been all God.
You too can have a blessed life or as Jesus said “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10).”
It all comes to down to what have YOU done about Jesus Christ!
This ministry is focused on showing that God’s Word is truth from the first verse to the last. From the first verse to the last it points to only one way to get to heaven. It is not based upon what you do. Eph 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
Jesus is not one way to heaven, He is the ONLY way to heaven.
Jesus was clear when He said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6)” We learn from the Creation Account that from the first sin in the Garden of Eden till today, it takes the shedding of blood to pay the price for our sins (Heb 9:22). But to pay the price for everyone’s sin for all time required more than shedding an animal’s blood. It took God. As John 1:1-14 explains, Jesus is God in the flesh. He led a sinless life so that He could be that perfect sacrifice for our sins. You see, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” He shed His blood to pay the price for our sins so that He could offer eternal life to us as a free gift.
Eternal Life in Heaven is free to us because Christ paid the price.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23).” That is Grace, having a gift offered to you freely when you don’t deserve it. But like all gifts, it must be received-accepted for the gift to become your own. You receive that gift by repentance of your sins which involves admitting you are a sinner and turning away from those sins by asking God to forgive you and putting your faith in Him alone.
If you believe in your heart and mind that Jesus is the Christ, that He paid the price for your sins, then all you have to do is admit to God you’re a sinner and call upon the name of the Lord. Romans 10:8-15 says it this way. “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart that is, the word of faith which we preach, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame… For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.””
Call Upon the Name of the Lord Today!
If you are not sure what to do, follow this simple Prayer
“Dear Heavenly Father, I admit that I am a sinner and that the price of sin is death. But I believe that you loved me so much that you died on the cross to pay that price for my sins. And I believe that you conquered sin by rising from the dead the 3rd day. I put my faith in you, that you paid for my sins and are giving me eternal life. I commit my life to you as Lord of my life.”
Then let someone know what you have done, either a pastor, friend, or family member that you are confident is a Christian. Or send us a message of what you have done. If you do that you are a born again, new person in Christ as your Savior. But like a new-born child needs nourishment to grow, you need spiritual nourishment to grow into the person Christ created you to be. That comes from walking with God daily by reading the Bible and praying. Find a good Bible-believing Church and make a point to fellowship with other believers.