"This is the day that the Lord has made, He didn't have to let me see it, it could have been another way. But He gave me mercy, covered me with grace, so I won't let nothing take a smile off my face."
- Anthony Brown and group therAPy
These lyrics resonate with the joy that I'm feeling in my heart at this present moment. Yesterday was a special day for a couple of believers in Christ and I, that I could not head to bed without sharing (now yesterday)'s special moment.
Y'al know I aspire to inspire people but today I was the one who was inspired such that I was brought to tears with so much overwhelming joy, love and peace. All four of us have different testimonies, but today the two testimonies that stood out for me were David's and Nick's.
Let me begin with David's story. He just reminded me of back when I was a year older than his age, so hungry for Christ but I just didn't know how to go about it because I wasn't so strong on understanding the word. The good news though was that, that's the moment I decided to receive Christ as my Lord and personal Saviour then got baptized in the Catholic Church. However, it wasn't the full dip in water baptism, according to John 3:5. So David here has been following Christ since I think the age of 4/5 and made a conscience decision to want to get baptized when he was 11 but the Pastor advised him that his personal general age guideline for baptism was 12+ and so he told David to come back after he turns 12. Now here's what's profound, David just turned 12, just on time of the announcement for upcoming baptism. The rest is history. The moral of the story here is that God's timing is just perfect. Not too soon. Not too late. Just perfectly on time. It also goes on to show that David did not change his mind because God is for sure working in this young gentleman and I look forward to what God has planned for his journey as he continues to follow Christ.
Now let's move on to the gentleman who literally brought tears to my eyes. I tried to hold my tears back but I just couldn't. Nick! He's known Christ all his life and accepted him as his personal Lord and Saviour at the age of 15 then made the conscience decision to get baptized at the age of 82. Yooo what is mercy? What is grace? Who really is God? What is He all about one might ask? This is when I simply respond saying, "God is nutts, amazing nutts by the way, super awesome nutts, ever so loving nutts" because He had to fulfil His purpose for Nick and kept him thus far knowing that he'd be a living testimony of how He resides in all of us. It's only a matter of taking time to understand who He really is, how much He loves us and wishes that we would be fully submurged by Him. Stand on His word as you hold onto your faith because there's absolutely no such thing as too late.
As for me, let's save that testimony for another day but I just want to thank God for the amazing opportunity to be a part of his Kingdom, His discipleship among these four favoured gentlemen. Now it's time to continue out into the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized in the name of Jesus Christ will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:15-16). Today I just thought I'd share other people's testimonies and hope that you feel encouraged the same way I did. Besides, you already know that you'll be reading mine for like forever. So stay tuned.
One might ask, "Does water baptism save you?" No. We are saved by GRACE through FAITH in Jesus Christ, and His death on the cross. See Romans 10:9-10 and Ephesians 2:1-10.
TBC...
With Love
AN