Becoming Saved through Jesus Christ: How I felt after I had become saved
Well, my whole life I was Catholic until last year. Then I became "born again" or saved. To be saved is to accept Christ as your saviour -and not have to earn it, or give anything in return. Automatically by the Holy Spirit in you, you will want to be good.
Unfortunately, things can get "cloudy" if you don't keep up with going to church and reading your bible. Without God's word-the Bible, you aren't getting "food" for your soul and things begin to darken.
That happened to me, and I was afraid to stand up to my Mom for not being Catholic anymore. I began going to Mass more and saying the rosary. The Catholic faith is okay, but I feel better following the Bible in the Baptist faith.
What I've learned about being Baptist or following Jesus thru reading His Word, is that you are being fed by God spiritually through his word and you can pray whenever and wherever and confess to God and say "I'm sorry" and not have to wait (in the Catholic faith) for a priest to be available. I've also learned that Jesus is our way to the Father, and we need to "get to" the Father. Mary supposedly gets us to Jesus but not to the Father. Basically praying to Mary "hinders" our relationship with God. Let's face it, if we are to spend eternity with God, then we should be getting to know him and pray TO him. I think that makes sense, I just didn't "see" that before.
If you seek the truth you will find it. It's just that there are many different forms of Christianity. The devil, I was told, tricks Christians into not finding the true Christian Church as in misleading people with the rosary, which is not evil in itself, and focusing on Mary, who is nice and a holy person, but distracting us from our real goal- Jesus Christ. It took me a year almost to figure this out, even after being saved, or accepting Christ.
Another misleading thing, well there are many, is that Atheists have actually said on their death beds things like "I am going to Hell, I cannot avoid it now, it approaches me,"
There is a story I was just told about a man who went to prison and was sentenced to death. One day, beforehand the governor got a notice that the man was innocent and told the guard to deliver the news. As the guard approached the cell of the inmate, the inmate started yelling "No no! Don't come near me! I don't want to hear anything you have to say!" So the guard had to walk away and leave the man guilty because he wouldn't llisten or accept the good news. Then the man realized it and yelled "come back, come back!" But it was too late.
Such it is the way with men. They are sinful and some of them cannot accept forgiveness, it is too late, they are hardened in their sin, and cannot seem to find or realize a way to even accept forgiveness, hence the atheist realizing on his deathbed that his life was a lie, and not even asking for confession or to accept Christ, because he doesn't have it in him. It takes courage actually to accept Christ, it takes humility.
I know when I accepted Christ from being Catholic, it was hard. I had attempted about 4 times prior and couldn't seem to "get" it. Finally one day, I sat down and prayed with a friend and realized finally that to accept Christ I had to admit I was a sinner, ask for forgiveness, and pray. Then I had to believe that Jesus died for my sins and that I was saved and would go to Heaven. That's all. But it was hard because, my whole life I was "conditioned" to believe we had to earn salvation or do good works to get it.....but it was twisted because we DON"T have to earn it! Jesus gives it to us, which was like WOW! I'm amazed! I thought. I had to hold back my desire to give back and accept Salvation.
The best way I can explain it, is: When you are at Christmas with your family, you get a Christmas gift from Mom, or Dad, or a brother, or sister, and you are so used to buying them a gift back. In fact you feel guilty if you don't. If you just take, you feel it's wrong to just take. As a human being you think you need to reciprocate.
Or think about a homeless person who has a lot of pride and when offered to stay with a family and sleep on the couch, they refuse because they think "Oh well, I don't want anyone to see me this way, so I'd rather be out in the cold because it's so embarrasing."
Well, Christ demands and expects us to be that beggar but be humble, and ASK. Then he will save us. And once we are saved, we will WANT to do good. But in order TO BE SAVED, you must ask......and accept without giving back. This is called HUMILITY and it is required for Salvation. Being saved also requires Faith, and detesting our sins and Hope for a better future with Christ.
This is why it's not EASY to be saved or to find Christ or take the plunge. It's NOT easy. We have to search for the truth in order to find it, and when we find it, we have to be willing to take it.
If you spend your whole life ignoring your conscience or the "calls" from God to come to Him, you become hardened in sin and no longer capable and God gets tired of you saying NO. This is why it's important to Pray for your family and loved ones for prayer can move mountains, even if it takes 40-50 years to finally get someone converted thru God and prayer.
HOW TO BECOME SAVED WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW HOW OR ARE HAVING TROUBLE?
Well, it actually takes an open mind. As humans we are conditoned to believe what the government tells us, what our church tells, us, we are often lied to and unless we seek our own way, or the truth, we will belive these lies till the day we die.
It's not easy to let your mind be open. In order to see things differently, I heard many a person say in the forums, you have to be humble How else can you let yourself think differently or try to imagine being in someone else's shoes or think how they think because you're so busy thinking how you think and believing out of pride (not humility) that YOU'RE RIGHT NO MATTER WHAT!!!
As Jesus said we must be like little children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, so it shall be: We MUST be humble to see things differently. AND, if we JUST give someone else's view a full CHANCE, then we can say, I tried but it failed and move on.
You CANNOT dismiss the possibility unless you are open to it first. And that way many people who seek the truth go from one religion or belief to another - but must continue seeking the truth- and ask for it- until they find it.
God bless you today- and may you find the truth.
Ps
Oh, and by the way, I've noticed I'm HAPPIER when I'm close to Jesus and doing his will actually......
.......When I do what ever I want...and commit all kinds of sins.....and drift away from Jesus and the Holy Spirit (who is within me )...........
......I feel dark......like I'm in darkness----I cannot see the LIGHT until I get back on track with my Lord , Christ. Seriously....we get pulled away, but getting back on track and being close to God.......well in eternity we will be close to God and that's Heaven, so WHY NOT NOW? WHY NOT HAVE HEAVEN NOW? (without the perfections and no pain.) Even though there is pain in this life, the Bible says [no, i'm not a thumper!!] That to know Christ and be with Christ and walk in the light....Christ is the light.
On a further note:
I don't mean to say being Catholic is bad or anything, I personally have just found it easier and more direct to approach Jesus (still as a Christian), but not going thru Mary. (Although I published a hub about praying to Mary awhile back.) I think as believers in Christ we need to constantly seek what is "healty" for us. And I will always love where I came from, being Catholic, I still do--I felt sad getting rid of my "things" but at the same time I felt it was necessary to "clear my head and focus on God more directly".
So this is what is working better for me, it helps me to focus on God's word..the Bible and that's where the Bible teaching church(s) come in.
I don't hate mary or the saints in fact I do love them. It's sorta complicated but this is where I am now, and I want to do all it takes to follow the pull Christ has set to me. I believe by being Catholic alone...is great and is a way to get to Heaven....but I know many Catholics who go to Mass all the time, and are still not getting where they want to, so for me, I want to be more focused on thought provoking bible passages rather than repetitive hail mary's. Just my decision.
