Nailing it Down

From April 20, 2009

These past couple weeks, our local church, New Spring Church, has been presenting a very clear message of the good news of Jesus and why he came, through a series they call, The Gospel . Little did I realize the impact it would bring for my family until yesterday…Let me back up and tell the story of our two older kids, Steve and Nicole. Greatest kids in the world, very fun, caring, and we have thoroughly enjoyed them in each stage of their lives. Nicole has always wanted to do everything her brother does, playing, music, friends, etc. Both of them began asking questions about what Jesus was all about at an early age. Very early, Steve, after asking lots of questions (why do people die, what happens after death, who gets to go to heaven) told us he wanted to ask Jesus into his life. Nicole, like Steven also began asking questions about how to get to heaven and what happens after you die like little ones do around age 4 and 5. Kim and I would answer her questions but without pushing she in any way to make a decision that she might not be ready to understand at that age. Finally one day, after another one of her questions about why do we need Jesus, she came to the conclusion that she wanted to pray and ask Jesus to come into her life. So with a little help from her dad, she prayed a simple prayer asking Jesus to save her from her sins and to come into her life. Again, we did not push for it; Kim and I want our kid’s faith to be their own and not just because Dad and Mom believe it. (By the way, Steve did the same at age 4; he says he remembers) We believe that when Jesus tugs at your heart strings, that is something HE does, we are only conduits of his message, grace, and mercy in this world. The same is true for baptism, and especially since both Steve and Nicole prayed to ask Jesus into their lives at an early age, we wanted them to approach us about being baptized.Fast forward now a few years to when we started attending New Spring, our kids have thoroughly enjoyed and soaked up the teachings by Perry Noble , senior pastor. After hearing a message about baptism, Steve said that he would like to be baptized and then Nicole said she would like to as well. Both of them were baptized early this year and we all celebrated this next step in their spiritual journey with Jesus.This past Sunday was week two of The Gospel series and about half way through the message, as Perry was asking if you’ve ever really nailed down giving your life to Jesus, Nicole looked over at her mom and said, “I don’t really remember doing that”. Kim asked her if she’d like to talk to dad later that day and she said “No, I need to do this now!” So at the end of the message, when Perry asked if anyone would like to stand to indicate that they would like to receive Jesus, she did and prayed right there at her seat! We witnessed the miracle of a new birth in our 13 year-old daughter, Sunday, and just wanted to share it with you and oh, by the way, Nicole says you’re invited to her real baptism on May 16th!