Congratulations! You’ve accepted Jesus as your Savior. This is the most important decision you will ever make. This one act of Faith determines where you will spend eternity. You, my dear brother or sister, will spend forever with Jesus and His Saints in Heaven!
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Welcome to God’s family. You’ll find you are surrounded by fellow believers, brothers, and sisters in Christ, who are on the same path as you. We come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. We all come from different backgrounds and we all have our very own story to tell. We were all sinners in need of a Savior. None of us are perfect. Far from it. But, we have all been washed by the blood of Christ. We are now saved from Hell, free from the bonds that held us, and we are new creatures in Christ. It’s very exciting!
You may be wondering, “Ok. That sounds awesome! I’m going to Heaven. So, what do I do until then? How do I live my day-to-day life? I have so many questions. Where do I begin?” Those are great questions. Those are the very reasons I wanted to add the series I’m Saved...Now What? to our blog. Let’s see if we can’t answer some of them for you in the next few posts.
On a side note, if you are by chance reading this and you haven’t accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross for your sins, by all means, keep reading. You may find that there are answers to your questions here as well. I am including a post in this series explaining how you too can be saved.
What does it mean to be saved? Essentially, it means you are saved from Hell. We are all sinners. It doesn’t matter if we’ve committed big, monstrous sins, or if we’re just guilty of “small stuff”. Sin is sin. Thanks to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, we’re born into it. It’s kind of in our DNA now.
Genesis 2:15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Genesis 3:3 Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee 17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
God doesn’t send people to Hell. That’s incorrect. Every person that is born into this world is born into sin. We are already Hell-bound. We do have a period that we are considered innocent. From the moment we are born until we reach the age of accountability, God looks at us as being innocent, and if we die during this time, we will go to Heaven. There’s not an exact age when this happens. I just know that we come to realize the difference between right and wrong at some point in our lives. We have enough knowledge to know better. At this point, if we are allowed to repent of, or turn away from, our sins and we choose not to, then we are no longer innocent. It’s at this point that we are in danger of spending forever in Hell.
Salvation is more than just being saved from Hell, though. Much, much more! We are reconciled to God the Father. He becomes our Heavenly Father, and he loves us very, very much. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us. The Bible calls the Holy Spirit the Comforter. Isn’t that beautiful? He dwells in us, comforts us, teaches us, guides us, and more. We’ll talk more about the Holy Spirit a little later…
In this series we will cover:
Foundational, or Core, Beliefs
The Great Commission
Signs of False Teachers
Conviction vs. Condemnation
Study Tools
Walking In Victory
GIGO - Gold In, Gold Out
Study For Your Benefit, Not To Stay Saved
How To Be Saved
And More...
My name is Ann Thomas, and I’m excited to have you join me as we discuss some of these exciting things. Just remember, no one is perfect. This is a journey. Please have patience with yourself. The Holy Spirit does help us, especially in areas of our life where we are the weakest. Are you ready? Let’s get started.
This is an awesome post, Sister Ann!!! Thank you for sharing!