Baptism testimony

Full testimony and baptism- https://youtu.be/p7JvkNY-d5k?si=MrMnojCnj1HE75Oc

I was baptized today! Praise God!

I was raised around Christianity. My family worked hard, loved me, and taught me about God. From a young age I believed God existed. In some ways this feels like a long time coming, but I have learned His timing is always perfect. Very early on, I noticed how the world really worked. I didn’t like it, but I saw it clearly. So I grew angry. and I built a persona around that anger. I thought I was resisting the system by being more “real” than everyone else. I let myself be shaped by a counterfeit strength borrowed from the world. I thought they were the problem, not me. I used to pride myself on being the person who ‘told it like it is.’. But if I’m being honest with you today, that was a lie. I wasn’t being real; I was being a jerk and a grump. When that disconnect became overbearing, I was overwhelmed, and who else to run to other than the Lord? And he revealed to me that living by the rules of the world or the rules I had made up to survive in it was vanity to the fullest. All my tactics, all my striving for control, and all the anger and intensity I had built around myself meant nothing. I realized I was trying to carry burdens I was never meant to carry, and in that clarity, I chose to stop living for the world and start living for God. Yet I still had to learn to give up the old way. I was trying to take tactics I learned from the world and bring them to God’s kingdom, but I had to learn his way is done through his spirit, and the way He does things is usually the total opposite from the world. 

Then I went too far; I confused my own stubborn grind with Godly strength and turned following Him into just another exhausting system. That mindset just led to isolation and pressure dressed up as humility. And when that failed, I went so deep into intellectualism that I thought if I understood enough doctrine or history, then I could save myself and the world through clarity. But neither suffering nor knowledge gave me rest. I began watching my emotions and analyzing how I was analyzing in an endless loop. At first it felt right. But the higher I climbed, the more exhausting it became. The ladder I was climbing led nowhere. and looking down only brought fear, but I was never intended to get to the top, and I was never meant to climb it.  God showed me that our limits are mercies. He doesn’t require us to climb endless levels of awareness to reach Him. His knowledge is perfect and immediate; He doesn’t think about thinking He simply knows. And in His grace, He came down the ladder to meet me. Jesus didn’t wait for me to figure it all out or climb high enough. He descended, lived the perfect life I couldn’t, died for my sins on the cross, and rose again to give me new life. I realized I am saved not by how far I climbed in self-reflection, theology, or debate or because of anything I ever did or will do. But for what Christ did alone. God gave me far more than I could have ever dreamed or deserved. He gave me a sense that I am never truly alone and a peace the world cannot take away. He gave me a life that has eternal purpose, a work that, when done for Him, echoes beyond myself and affects people forever. He gave me the ability to know Him personally and to understand that the One who painted every sunrise and sunset loves me with a love beyond comprehension. He gave me eternal life, forgiveness, and freedom from having to hold everything together on my own. Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.

“But beyond these, my son, be warned: there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body. When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity. For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.”
‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭12‬:‭12‬-‭14‬ ‭

𝕯𝕰𝖀𝕾 𝖁𝖀𝕷𝕿 . 𝕹𝖔 𝖌𝖚𝖎𝖑𝖙 𝖎𝖓 𝖑𝖎𝖋𝖊, 𝖓𝖔 𝖋𝖊𝖆𝖗 𝖔𝖋 𝖉𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍, 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖎𝖘 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖕𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖗 𝖔𝖋 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙 𝖎𝖓 𝖒𝖊 𝖋𝖗𝖔𝖒 𝖑𝖎𝖋𝖊’𝖘 𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖘𝖙 𝖈𝖗𝖞 𝖙𝖔 𝖋𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖑 𝖇𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍. 𝕵𝖊𝖘𝖚𝖘 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖘 𝖒𝖞 𝖉𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖞!!!!

𝕭𝕰𝕹 𝕬𝕹𝕿𝕳𝕺𝕹𝖄 𝕾𝕴𝕸𝕺𝕹

PILGRIMS PONDERING MINISTRY