Born Again
Don't stop at the video!
Please take time and check out MY STORY below (if interested)
Also, this is not just encouragement for unbelievers, but for believers as well. After you watch or read this, ask yourself, "Are there ways, habits, favorites that you may need to be born again?"
(The following is a repeat of the video.)
What does it mean to be born again??
Imagine this...
Imagine a new born baby. When it is born, it has no favorites. No favorite foods. No favorite things. No favorite places to go. No favorite things to do. Nothing!
The baby is brand new. It is a new creature, ready and available to be filled, taught, and poured into. Then the baby will grow and Choose, what to do with whatever it sees, hears, learns and feels. That is what I imagine being born again is like. It's being made new. And in this newness, you're open and available to be filled and poured into with the word of God and new things, new favorites, new habits and ways. All influenced and nurtured by God, The Father, Son, and Spirit. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT) says ...anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! How beautiful, fun and exciting it can and should be to discover a new, greater, and wiser you!
Please consider!! Consider living a new life! Consider chosing and believing in Christ! Consider getting baptized and being born again!
John 3:16 -For God so loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Mark 16:16 -...anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.
Steps To Salvation/ Being Born Again:
*Hear the Word. (Rom 10:17)
*Believe the Gospel. (John 20:31, Acts 16:31)
*Repent of your sins. (Mark 6:12, Luke 13:5, Luke 15:7)
*Confess Jesus to others. (Matt 10:32-33, Luke 12:8-9)
*Be baptized in the name of Jesus for salvation. (Rom. 6:4-5, Acts 2:37-38, Acts 2:41, 1 Pet. 3:21)
My Story:
Rebirth
By: Evonne R Curry
I was a sassy little girl. Smart. Sweet. Perhaps cute. But very sassy. I did a lot of "back talk" and had a nasty attitude. I was 9 years old in the 4th grade. The day before I was reborn, Nov. 21, 1995, I had attempted to run away from home. The kids at school had planned to cheat on a Social Studies test. Ms. Martin, my 4th grade teacher, had her teacher's pets. Penny was one of them. Ms. Martin had given us, the students, the test to take home and study. Jenny, Hardey, and a few more decided that they would put a very small dot on the answers of the test. I can't remember whose idea it was, but Hardey had told me of the plan. So I decided to go with it.
Test time came, and to my surprise, Jenny, though she was involved too, told on me. Yep, she turned me in. I was the only one she told on. I didn't know why and I still don't. I suppose she didn't expect Hardey to fill me in on the plan. But, even though I was betrayed, I had no desire to tell on her or the rest of my peers. My only thoughts were of the terrible whooping (not whipping) I would get when I got home. Ms. Martin called my mom and made ME tell my mom that I had cheated on the test and would receive a 0. My doom was sealed. But it wasn't my fault. It was the devil's fault and if I was baptized, the devil wouldn't have made me do it. This was the sincere thought of my 9 year old self.
My older sister, had already been baptized. Ever since that day, I paid more attention in church and desired to get baptized too. My parents told me that I was too young. Perhaps I was, but all I knew was that I believed what the preacher said, which was, in order to be saved, I must be baptized and I also believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
So back to what I was saying about cheating on the test... On the bus ride home, I decided that I was going to run away in order to avoid receiving the whooping of a life time from my mom. So, Plan A: I would get off on the bus stop that comes before mine, walk to Mega Market Grocery Store, call my grandmother to come get me, and live with her. Plan B: There was no Plan B. So I did just that. I got off on the bus stop before mine, talked to my friends for a minute in order to play it off and I began walking to Mega Market. Skrrrrt!!!! My plan was very short lived. Before I even got to the end of the street, my sister came flying/running toward me to catch me. I thought, "Yay! She can come with me!" But once she reached me, she told me that she came to take me back home. I told her that I couldn't go back because I was going to get a whooping if I did. She told me, "Well, if I don't bring you back, then I'm gone get a whooping. I'll drag you back if I have to." And she began to do exactly that. Fortunately, our bus driver's route brought her back to the street that I got off on, and she saw us and stopped. She asked what was going on and talked to me about what I was trying to do. I don't remember what all she said, but I remember that shortly afterward, a blue van turned the corner and came down the street. It was my dad. He was on his way home from work and Kela and I got in the van and went home. My mother was crying. She asked me why I tried to run away and I told her that it was because I didn't want to get a whooping. I told her what my plan was and she explained to me how dangerous it was and that I could have been ran over , kidnapped, or anything. I told her that I was sorry for everything and for the cheating, I told her that the devil made me do it and that if they allowed me to get baptized, none of it would have happened. They explained to me that it didn't work that way and that I'm responsible for my decisions. They surprisingly did not whoop me. They further explained baptism to me and the next day, after Wednesday Bible class, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving day, Nov. 22, 1995, I was baptized in Christ. I've grown, matured, changed, and have been a blessed and happy follower of Christ ever since. Hallelujah!! Amen!