Are you feeling the heaviness of the world lately? Yeah, me too. It has brought me back to remembering that this world is not my home. To my life verse:

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” NKJV

However, we can’t have this hope without knowing Jesus, so I thought I’d share my journey to Christ with you today.

Let’s take a trip back to another century…yes, I’m that old. I was born in 1976 and I was taken to church by my mom for the first part of my life. In sixth grade, I was told by my mom I needed to “walk the aisle” and get baptized. This was done in a closed door room in my home as you didn’t talk about God out in the open much in our home. I wasn’t sure what it all meant despite the fact I grew up in church, but I was all for it. All my church friends had been baptized. And I knew you were supposed to obey your parents.

So, the next Sunday I went forward with my mom and brother and my mom told the pastor we wanted to be baptized. The pastor looked at my brother and me and said, “So you both have accepted Jesus at home then?” I was confused by the question and felt uncomfortable because no we hadn’t, but my mom replied, “Yes, they have.” Again, you obey adults and you definetly don’t argue with an adult in front of another, so I didn’t speak up.

Even though I had wanted to pray with the pastor when he offered an invitation to the previous summer in Bible school I didn’t understand it and was afraid to ask anything.

I was “dunked” (baptized) and went on with my life as if I was now a Christian.

A couple of years later, due to some changes in leadership at the church we lost a lot of older youth from the church, and so as I entered the youth group I quickly became one of the leaders. I loved going to church and wanted to be there everytime it was open.

Fast forward to when I turned 16 and we got a new youth leader. He and his wife immediately jumped in loving on us as a youth group and they were intentional about knowing us each individually. I often babysat for their two sweet little girls and most often they took time after their nights out to sit and talk with me. They prayed with me and they were loving toward me. I loved listening to Mike speak about Jesus because there was a passion, realness, and truth of the Bible I felt I had been missing.

The summer after they arrived we went to an evangelism camp. There we had to practice sharing our testimony of how we came to Jesus.

Ummm, okaaaay…yeah that’s a bit hard when you haven’t. The conviction had already started on me with having listened to Mike truly share the gospel at youth group, but during one night at camp this preacher really laid it out.

The theme was “Pure and Sure”. He said, “Are you sure you’re going to heaven if you die tonght? Because if you’re not the time is now.” I was shaking in my seat, and sweating bullets. (And, not just because it was July in Missouri and there was no air conditioning in the audiorium.) That night there were several camp counselers – those who were there to teach us about Jesus that prayed and admitted they never had truly known Jesus either.

As we headed back to our dorms that night I knew sleep would be elusive. I laid in the bottom bunk of the bunkbed and tossed and turned. These were my thoughts….

What will people think? I am supposedly already a Christian…have been living like I am a Christian, a leader in the youth group.

What will my family think? My dad already isn’t into “church” or God so how will I explain all of this?

What will people think? (Yes, there it is again.)

And that is what it came down to. God convicted me on this one thing:

Will you follow them or me?

Wow, stop there and take that in for a moment.

I knew it was a make it or break it moment in my life. I don’t know how long I tossed and turned but I could feel an invisible battle raging around me for my soul. It was like an internal thunderstorm is the only way I can describe it.

Until….

I said, yes. Yes to Jesus. Yes, that it doesn’t matter what others think, but I want to know and follow God. I wanted Jesus. So, right then and there I said, yes. I knew I was a sinner in need of saving and believe Jesus died for me and rose again. I told God it didn’t matter what others thought, but that I wanted to follow Him and Him alone.

The next day I confessed this aloud to everyone that would listen.

To say people were shocked is an understatement. But those who were true Christians supported me and talked to me about my decision. Mike, my youth pastor gave me this verse to come back to when Satan tries to convince me I’m not truly a Christian. At the time, I remember thinking, well I am now so I won’t need that verse.

Ha! I’ve needed it numerous times! Satan does his best to distort everything! Here it is:

“That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” NKJV

I was “officially” baptized symbolizing that I truly had decided to follow Jesus and laid down my life. Buried with Him in baptism and raised to new life in Christ. I was now a child of God.

I wish I could say after that life was all roses and that I was an amazing Christian. It wasn’t and I’m not.

I still had a lot of growing in Christ I needed to do and it would be years before I realized that just “knowing” Jesus as my Savior and having the assurance of not going to hell was not true faith. It was not a faith that would sustain me when life fell apart.

But, it is the crucial first step to new life. To new life in Christ. I’ll share a bit more next week about really finding a deep faith to sustain me, but today here’s my challenge for you.

Do you know if you die right now what you’ll see on the other side in eternity? It will be one of two things.

I want you to see Jesus welcoming you into heaven. I want you to have eternal life with Christ. The other option is eternal life….but in hell. And as bad as our world has been lately, as evil as things are…hell will be even worse than you could ever imagine this world being.

The teaching pastor at my church often says, “If you know Jesus this world is a close to hell as you’ll get. If you don’t know Jesus, this world is the closest to heaven you’ll get.”

Hear me on this. Jesus loves you. So much He was beaten, tortured, spit on, and nailed to a cross to die for all your sins. He loves you so much He made a way to eternity with God.

I don’t know another person on this earth that will do that for you.

I chose and still choose to follow Jesus.

Will you?

If you want to know Jesus just simply pray this with me today and if you want to read more about knowing Jesus you can here.

Father God,
I know I am a sinner and have made mistakes. I recognize I am not able to save myself from eternal death. I believe you sent Jesus, and He walked this earth fully man and fully God, and then He died on the cross and shed His blood for my sins.
I believe You then raised Jesus from the dead so I can spend eternity with You. Thank you for saving me and for loving me enough to send Jesus to die for me.
In Jesus Name,
Amen

If you prayed that congratulations! Please find a Bible believing church to grow in your faith. If you need guidance in that go here: https://livingproof.co/online/

This song came out recently. Olivia Lane, the author and singer of it, used to be an atheist. Look her up and listen to her story. She chose to follow Jesus!

(C) 2025 Susan M. Clabaugh with Encouragement in Daily Living LLC