Faith

Hi again! I am so excited about this blog-topic!! It is all about sharing our faith, and I am so humbled to be able to tell everyone how Jesus saved me and overwhelms me with His love. As an Air Force brat, my family found ourselves living in a small town in South Dakota. Belle Fourche, South Dakota is a small town just off the military base that at the time had two main churches, a Lutheran and a Catholic church. My dad was raised Catholic, so we found our way to Mass every Sunday. I had my very first rosary and everything. When we moved back to Tennessee, we started attending First Baptist Church, Fall Branch, and I can distinctly remember asking my parents about salvation. I was probably seven or eight years old. My parents decided to take me to our pastor's house, Pastor Vic Wallace, who was and is a great man of God. In his living room, I told him I wanted to be saved, mostly because I didn't want to die and go to Hell, and he led me through the sinners prayer. Growing up I was a good girl, who loved the Lord and tried my best to keep His commandments. I know I failed Him often, but I also knew I was loved and saved because of Jesus. Well, when I was in the 6th grade, I went with the church to Higher Ground Baptist Church for their annual Judgment House drama, and were my eyes ever opened!! That night I saw what my sin, even though small by earthly standards, had caused Christ to suffer and ultimately die.  That night I rededicated my life to Christ because I was no longer wanting salvation to avoid Hell, but I was so very sorry and ashamed that my sins had hurt my Savior.
I was led to Christ as a very young person, not fully understanding sin, but even now as an adult, I am still learning every day about my sin. Have I failed Him or sinned against Him? Sure, every day actually, but when I confess and truly repent of my sin, He is so quick to forgive and forget my sin. While on the cross, Christ, who was sinless, took on all the sins of mankind. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." For example, Christ, 2000 years ago, knew I would covet, lie, doubt, have a temper, and so on, and He paid my sin debt, which I never could afford. I could never do enough in this life to earn my salvation, but He made the way!!
I am so ashamed of how I let God down daily, but He is quick to remind me of how he wiped my sins away. I have had stuck in my head for the past week the line, "Oh, praise the One Who paid my debt, and raised this life up from the dead." Hallelujah, I am alive because He died for me and my sin debt!!