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Meaning and importance of baptism
Meaning and importance of baptism
Meaning and importance of baptism
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So I don't really have a big defining moment of my life where everything changed and I gave up the drugs and drinking and turned toward God. I do have a moment where I turned to him but it isn't big and grand. Sometimes I wish this was different, sometimes I wish I had some big grand story. But then again, I have been immersed in God's life for all of mine and I can't complain about that.
I was born on a Thursday in January and as soon as I was able, about a week and a half later, I was in church. That is where my spiritual knowledge started. That goes a bit too far back though to make this a two page paper. My actual individual walk with Jesus started much later. As I said, I grew up in the church and I appreciate that fact. All of my life I had heard about Jesus and the commitment that should be made toward Him and I stalled. For thirteen years I stalled in that commitment. When I was twelve years old, a good friend of mine, who was my age and the first person my dad baptized at our new church, was shot and died instantly. This affected me deeply. I still had the idea that there was no chance I would be done with life soon. His death really brought me into the realization that my time to see Jesus could be anytime and almost to the year anniversary of his death I was baptized. My best friend had come to visit us for Easter and she stayed up and talked with me until very late at night and stayed near me until that Sunday at church. It was very encouraging to me having most of my loved ones there and my dad baptized me that Easter Sunday.
After that I played the "I'm baptized now, give me a break" card. I was still very involved in the youth group and my best friends were at church but I really just used it a...
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...e to be under the influence of some people who have helped me become the person in Christ that I am now and they have allowed me to grow into that. I appreciate so deeply those people. I think that if they would have pushed me there or pushed me too quickly I feel like there is definitely some things I would have missed, some things I wouldn't have understood. I have recently, within the last year, been searching to be in a new level with God and not allow myself to become to complacent in my spot. I don't want to be someone who gets to some ideal spot then just sits there. I truly hope that by the end of this semester even that there could be a new and different story to this walk in my life. I have been so honored in the ways that God has used me in the last 23 years and I hope that that never changes! All glory to HIM for my life and anyone else's who lives.
Mary I have grown academically. Students come to school and learn so much. We learn skills and lessons that prepare us not only for high school or college but for the rest of our lives. We learn all these things from our teachers. Our teachers care about each one of us and want us to do well. They work very hard so that we can have the education we do. They also strive to be good role models for their students. They set a good example and teach us good values. We are taught how to treat people with love and respect. What's so amazing is that not only are we taught these values but you can see the students acting on these values everyday. For example, when we went to the Camp Duncan retreat we participated in some activities that taught us some about what it means to be Christian and how we should build each other up instead of tearing people down. After these activities you could see everyone being really nice to eachother, people talking to people they usually don’t, and just using what we had learned that day. It’s so amazing to see all the ways God works in our
Overall I didn’t really have the great of an experience and that was the reason why I went back to my family’s house, and was able to continue my education at a Christian school; such as Azusa pacific University which I love. I love the fact that I am also learning more about God, and having a wonderful people that are getting to know more about God as well. My overall experience made me more grateful to be where I am today and to be able to focus more on my life being around my family.
My preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation has been incredible. There were times when it seemed that I had better things to do instead of going to the Youth Ministry. But after going, I never regretted it. Every time I was there, I felt at home. The thing that was in my mind most of the time was just how mortal human beings are. It was a wonderful feeling to know God loved me and that He’d allowed me to be there yet another time. I’ve learned to appreciate everything God gives us. Someti...
I would always have more than enough time to excel in my studies as I breezed through the semester with exceptional grades. As the second semester rolled around, it got me thinking that I was not too happy about the way I went about the first term. I promised myself that I would become active in social groups and put myself out there. I am currently midway through my second semester and wow has my life changed for the better. I have associated myself with a fraternity, met more people and have been genuinely happy with the social aspect of life.
When I was 11 years old, I gave my life to Christ. My generous soul had been apparent to others at my Christian Academy, so me not being saved was a shock to many. As I stood with my
attending CCU, was the day that I decided that I was going to become a Pastor. Before I get into
In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie noticed while living in the Everglades that some of the Indians started leaving the town and heading east. She also noticed that the animals started to scatter as well. Janie asked one of the Indians why they were leaving and he said that there was a hurricane approaching. The park ranger that guided us on the slough slog informed the class that this is a fact. The animals as well as the sawgrass know when hurricanes are approaching. The Indians these days know when a hurricane is approaching as well. Yet, these days they most likely find out from the weather channel reports on their big-screen TV's in their casinos instead of analyzing whether or not the sawgrass is blooming! It would have been interesting to have had class this Friday to see for ourselves if the blooming of sawgrass is indeed a fact now that Hurricane Michelle is approaching.
...ing church at least three times a month, starting in March. Over the next year, I will also take time every night to read the Bible (at least three chapters) and pray to receive guidance on the direction my life should take and to further internalize my preexisting value set. Additionally, I will go on at least one mission trip before I am finished with my undergraduate degree.
In these past few months, my life has been dramatically changed for the better. I have gone from hiding under a rock to sparking on fire for God 's sake. In all of these changes, there is not exactly one easy event that will influence my academic journey moving forward, but a whole series of God speaking to me that will guide my through it. To fully comprehend the Grace that has led me to knock on the door of college again, the experience can only be explained through a story. That being said, this story will begin around December of 2014 where I found myself missing a Christian summer camp I use to work at, and really wishing I could be a part of the conference I once loved so much. I began debating with myself (and a little bit of God when
I’d like to state the most obvious observation that I’ve made about spiritual formation; that is that I will always need to be seeking for ways to nurture my personal spirituality throughout my life. I know that to most people this may sound like a “duh” statement, but for me it has truly become a reality and one that I must admit I have been struggling to embrace. I was brought up in a church that, like most traditional churches, stayed happy living in the “comfort zone” of their Christianity. They took everything that the Bible said at face value without digging in to find out why they believed what they believed. I had never been challenged to look deeper into the text. In the past few years I have felt the need to tunnel out of this cave of what I feel is best labeled “Christian ignorance”. In the process though, I have had to come to terms with letting go of the things that brought me comfort and provided me with what I thought it took to have a close relationship with God. Some of those things were tangible. Most were not. The things that were the least tangible actually ended up being the hardest to let go of.
The book mentions that ethics is about behavior. This means that for something to be a part of your ethical beliefs, you must be willing to act accordingly if put the situation. If you are not willing to act on something that you say is your ethical and moral belief, is it really a part of your ethics. I do not think that a person can believe something and contradict the beliefs with the decisions that they choose to make. The decisions that people make decide for them, what their ethical and moral beliefs. Talk is cheap when it comes to ethics. I think that in the case of ethics, the phrase should be switched around. If you are walking the walk, you are allowed to talk the talk.
During my seventh grade year, my church went to a youth rally at a local church on weekend. Because of this rally and the message it sent, I realized and wanted to give my life to Jesus through baptism. It was awesome, I got home as a young teenager and actually talked to my mom about what it really means to be a Christian and to pick up your cross and follow him. So that very next weekend, my dad baptized me in front of the whole church on Sunday morning. It was an awesome feeling knowing that because of Jesus’ grace and mercy, I will be with him one day and spend eternity with him. Although I was on top of the world at this point, I still didn’t know fully what I had gotten into. So the next few years, I live the typical Christian life. I was trying to be the perfect person by doing the right stuff, I would try not to cuss, I would try to wear as many WWJD bracelets as I could so that I wouldn’t have to talk to them about Christ and they could just see it on my wrist, I would not join in on conversations with my friends that I knew were not right, I was just living life on cruise control.
When I was at the age of seven, I found out that my Grandmother, from my dads sisde of the family was very ill, her kidneys gave out, and she needed a transplant. I remember that day very vividly, i remember walking into the hospital room where she was placed at the time, and a sort of silence with a mixture of darkness in the room. We entered and the Doctor had told my family and I that there was no kidney transplant available for my Grandmother. It was a shock to my family and me. Everyone knew if there wasn't a transplant that she wouldn't make it. Yet my family did not loose faith, they kept on praying and praying just so that she wouldn't die. The next day my father recieved a call, and that call changed the way I felt about my religion and God. The doctor had told my father that my uncle that has been living in another country for over the past twelve years was going to donate one of his kidneys to his mother. I could not believe it but this event, and experience changed the truth.
I can approach it with more confidence my next time around knowing that I'll have help to guide me along the way on my next assignment. My journey with Christ is the experience I'll use in describing my motivation in academic work and goals at
It wasn’t a specific day or date that I can remember, but more or less a time period that I spent a majority of my time “thinking my life out”. It was during my freshman year of college, I was going through a major transition. Moving away from home, not just to school, but across the entire country from Virginia to California. I was facing the reality that actions I took then could drastically impact the rest of my life. I spent a lot of time trying to picture my future, trying to figure out what was going to happen to me in the future. Where was I going to be? What was I going to be doing? Was I going to end up marrying my boyfriend, Matt? Would I be happy? Was I going to be a Mother? Would I be successful? I wanted to know it all. I tried to evaluate everything, like my reasons for coming out to USF, was ROTC right for me, could I do it? There were weeks when I questioned everything I did. I rethought all aspects of every dimension of my life. I contemplated each of my decisions that could possible determine things in my life’s path. I was looking for the meaning for everything I did everything, I chose and the reason why God had put me where I was. I got very agitated with myself and frustrated because deep down I knew that God was in charge of what was to happen to me. I knew that He would take care of me, and He would put me where He wanted me to be. In all honesty, I believe this was when I realized that it was time to allow God to take over, no more of this “questioning” my destiny or meaning of my life. I allowed God to take over, completely and I handed him back his job- my future and my life. I would have to say that at this same time I was also going through a stage of unpredictability and in...