life-change
| This past weekend was packed with great moments. (The Indy/San Diego game was NOT one of them...) The most amazing moments were the three people who decided to surrender their life to Christ and begin a new life in Him and be baptized in to Christ. They now have a new birthday to celebrate. A spiritual re-birth day. At ACC, we witnessed this on Friday night. Again on Saturday afternoon. And then again on Sunday afternoon. The decision to surrender your life to Christ is a pretty big deal. In fact, it's the biggest deal this side of eternity. There are lots of decisions that are pretty heavy in life, (school, marriage, career, children, etc.). Yet not one of these decisions have personal favorable eternal consequences. They only have earthly (temporal) consequences. When we surrender to Christ and recognize that there's nothing you or I can do to be in a right relationship with Him. That's life-change. |
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| It's when we say, "I can't do it myself! I give up! My life stinks without You God! I've tried dealing with my junk all of my life, and it's not working! I can clean myself up enough. I don't have a clue how good is good enough. So I'm going to quit guessing how good I need to be and allow You, God, to make me good in Your eyes because of the sacrifice of your Son Jesus. I'm done trying. I want to finally allow You to come in to my life and make me whole. I want my life to be about you and not about me. I want to be a Christ-follower. I want a changed life. A life transformed." I witnessed this personally in the voice, eyes and body language of two of these new Christ-followers this past weekend. The best part was the smile on their face when they came up out of the water. They were done trying to do life alone. They wanted to do life with Jesus and with other Christ-followers in community with each other. That's called life-change. And it's the most important, humongous, ginourmous decision we can ever make. Accepting the free gift of grace through faith in Christ and His finished work on the cross. It's such a big deal that the angels in heaven have a party every time someone surrenders! "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Luke 15:10 Life-change. It doesn't it get any better than that!!! | |
Glad it was a great weekend!
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A few other words come to mind ...
awesome, fascinating, incredibile, striking, marvelous, wonderful, incredibile, outstanding, amazing, exciting, humbling, fantastic, stunning, and ...
ultra cool ...
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As one of the recipients of one of this past weekend's re-birthdays, I can't even find the words to say what is in my heart. Yes, I was smiling when I came up out of that water, and I haven't stopped smiling since! I'm like an ecstatically happy little kid, and every day feels like "Santa is coming, Santa is coming!" (thanks to my awesome very best friend, and now sister in Christ, for that description). And Dan, you have summed it up perfectly: this fantastic gift of grace through faith in Christ is GINOURMOUS!!! I'm so happy to have a new life with Jesus and a new family at ACC. Thanks to you all!
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Michelle:
You are a blessing! Thanks for your new heart for God and your new life in HIm! And I thank Him for His Spirit in you!!!
blessings.
dan
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Hey Dan,
I am thrilled that things are going so well for you. Where is your church in relationship to Baltimore? Our oldest son Joshua and his wife Erica live and work in Baltimore.
They are expecting their first child on June 19th which will make me a grandpa for the first time.
May God continue to use you and bless you! Please tell Lara I said "hello".
In Christ,
Mike
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Mike:
I am thrilled that you found my blog! That is crazy that Joshua and Erica are so close! The church address is 615 Donalson Avenue, Severn, MD 21144 so that they can mapquest it.
Just about 25 minutes from downtown Baltimore and 45 minutes from downtown DC. The church website is www.arundelcc.org and might provide additional insight for them to take a look at. At a minimum, it would be fun to have them over for dinner!
Wonderful news for you and Julie to become grandparents!!!! Wow!!!
Give our best to Julie!!!
Blessings.
Dan
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