Baptism Sunday

This post is going to be rather long but I need to tell you my heart.

So yesterday was a FABULOUSLY AMAZING Sunday for Mama Horton and all of my Whos!! Yesterday Wesley & I got baptized. Some of you, if not most of you might be going "what I thought they were already baptized?" And the answer is yes we both were baptized when we were younger & no we don't promote being baptized more than once (in Acts chapter 16:33 & Acts 18:8 scripture talks about whole families being saved through faith in Jesus Christ & then being baptized) but you should be baptized when you are truly professing salvation and is ready to be convicted of sin and live a life according to Jesus' teachings which will not be easy and require him/her to completely leave who they were and become a new person (Matthew 16:24-28).

We have learned recently ALOT about true salvation. Romans 6: 1-14 speaks of the fact that because Jesus died and took on our sin if we are truly saved through faith in him we will die to sin. We cannot be saved and continue to live in sin. Yes, we will sin as Christians because we are not perfect but our goal for every second of our life should be to live as Jesus did (sinless). As an evangelist John Reed taught us in November you cannot live in habitual sin and profess salvation. Jesus is light & sinless so He cannot exist in the same place as darkness & sin.

Wesley and I realized through John's teaching and studying God's word that we had lived in habitual sin after we were "saved" when we were younger which led us to the question of "are we truly saved?" Could we have been in Christ and in those other situations together? The answer is no. In Ephesians 5: 8-21 it says that we once lived in sin but now as believers in Christ we are the light and we should live as children of light. It goes on to say that we should only do what pleases the Lord and have nothing to do with darkness and fruitless deeds. Now you may be questioning, saying, "so, you are saying perfection?" No, I am not saying that I will or can be perfect but I cannot live with habitual sin that I am unrepentant of. Repentance- turning away from completely! I was not there at that point in my life.

So that brings us to April when God used some unfortunate circumstances in my life to show me that I was not who I was pretending to be. I was of the mindset that I was doing all of these things right, serving the Lord at church, praying (occasionally), reading my Bible (when I felt I had time, which wasn't very often because I liked to throw out "the busy, working mother of 3" card whenever I could), being a better wife and mother than other people who I had convinced myself were doing it all wrong (disturbing right!) If I had all of these things going for me there was no reason to question my salvation. But God put me in a situation that made me reevaluate who I was in Him...and I didn't like what I saw! Now this part isn't all doom and gloom and depression, instead this has been the most miraculous time in my life. I can truly say that I can see and feel a true change in my entire life in a way that I have never known before. I can only explain these changes by saying Jesus gave me the capability, strength, and power to change in the ways I have.

It is so surreal when I really sit back and think about what I am thinking, saying, and feeling now. Not at all to say that I am now perfect (haha yeah right!!) But to know where I thought I was and now see where I truly was and where I am now is just crazy!

I am thankful to my Savior for what He has done in my life no matter how difficult circumstances might have been I can truly say it has been a blessing to see Him change Wesley and I. I pray that everyone who reads this post can truly evaluate who they are in Christ and if they are who they should be in Him then continue, if they are not who they think they are I pray they be convicted, if they do not know Him as their Savior I pray that they come to the realization that He is the one and only Risen King (Matt. 28:6, Mark 16:6, Luke 24:34) and He can be the King of their life if they will acknowledge Him.