Just me and Jesus

This outward blogging thing is very new to me. I have always had a desire to start a blog and share my thoughts, opinions, ideas and much more with people. But for some reason I always was scared out of it by intimidation.

Well now I can't come up with any more excuses. My professor has asked our entire class to create a blog and write to the outside world for a full semester. Now that I have started this, I hope it can become more than just a class assignment. I want to take this blog and run with it! I'm excited, nervous, joyful, overwhelmed but ready. I want this blog to not be about me but about how God is working in me and through me in so many different ways.

So with that being said where do I start?

Here is my story...

If someone asked me who Jesus was - I could easily give you the Sunday school answer. God's Son of course. He was also God and came to earth in human flesh and lived and died for us. But if someone would have asked me who Jesus was to ME, now that was a different question. For many years Jesus was an accessory to me. I put him on when I wanted to, around the people I wanted to, where I wanted to. He was not my first thought in the morning or before I went to sleep. The glory wasn't given to him when something great happened or when I achieved a goal. He was the person I went to church for on Sunday's and didn't recognized Monday-Saturday.

I lived for parties, friends and relationships. I was focused on everything outward and how it could benefit me and make me more known. I was living on the edge. Sneaking around my parents, friends, teachers and seeing how close I could get to that edge without falling over. Well, I fell. And I fell hard. During my junior year of high school I had a rude awakening. I ended up getting into trouble and realizing it's not about me or my life. At that moment I knew I didn't want to live the rest of my life that way.

I didn't snap my fingers or click my heels and change. It was definitely a process. I did searching. What was I missing? What was it that could fill that spot in my life that friends, drinking, boys, grades, fame could not?

I began going to church on my own. I was hearing and seeing Jesus in a different light this time around. I began to realize He is what I needed. He was the only one that could fill that empty space in my heart. One summer day I had a man present the Gospel to me. That Jesus was the Son of God, who was God. God loves me so greatly and truly wants to best for my life and has great plans to fulfill those desires! There was a problem though. My sin became between me and God. Because of my sin I could not know him or be in relationship with him. But there was no need to lose hope! Jesus came to this earth in human flesh and lived the life I could live and died the death I should have died. On that cross he bore all my sins, past, present and future. He rose from the dead and is still living today! He offered an amazing gift that no one else can or will ever offer. All I needed to do was say yes! That day I said yes. I entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ and made Him my Lord and Savior. All my sins were forgiven and I was saved from a life of slavery.

I entered my last year of high school with a whole new perspective on life. There are definitely times that I did and still do fail and fall short. But I know that God loves me and forgives me. He is there to pick me up again and again. A lot has happened between then and now.. and maybe some of those stories will appear throughout my blogging experience. But let's fast forward 5 years. Here we are now - today I took a new step. Since giving my life to Christ there is something I have not done. Water baptism. Well today that changed.. I was baptized! =)

The definition of baptism... to immerse, to cleanse, to overwhelm.

I was fully immersed today - meaning I was dunked! I related with Christ in his burial by going completely under water and then I related to Him in His resurrection when I came out of the water.
"We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" Romans 6:4

I was cleansed. I am now clean from everything that hindered me. My past is no longer a part of my life. The old is gone and the new has come.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17.

And I am now overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is in my heart to guide and direct me each day to bring all the glory to God.
"In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in the baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all of our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." Colossians 2:11-14.

So with all of that here I am. It's me and Jesus now. Walking in a loving relationship. He is pursuing me. I am living for him. Jesus is no longer an accessory I put on when I want. He is my life - each day I put on Christ. I want make him known through the way I live because in the end it's not about me, but all about him!