This past Sunday at our Midtown location, our church celebrated publicly the free gift of salvation through Christ with member baptism. We heard story after story of lives changed by Jesus. Here are just two of these stories from our new family members. Praise God!
Cole Long's story
"From the earliest years of my life I was introduced to Jesus or rather introduced in a way that most are with the routines of baptisms and Sunday school at a Lutheran church. I knew the name of Jesus but I can't say that I knew him in any meaningful sense. My confirmation at the age of 13 passed almost un-noticed in my mind overshadowed by a fracture in my family with my parent's divorce. It diverted my attention towards faith then and years to come. From then on my life took on a strange rhythm being a week at my mother's and a week at my father's. A regular packing and unpacking, shuttling between houses that soon taught me dressers and closets are useless for someone in my position. I stored my life in a simple duffle bag. And so with this bag and my clothes and distractions it went. Week after week, switching houses, switching parents... a routine that I followed for six years.
It occurred to me that this duffle bag is a good analogy for what was my inner life at the time... packed away and hidden from view. No one else saw its contents. I guarded it zealously not allowing anyone the faintest clue about the deep sexual sin, self centeredness that pervaded my whole being. Shame became my closest companion and I warranted it with a quiet desperation. I became a locked fortress on all fronts on guard towards any real connection. Even among friends, I played the part of the smartest in the room, eager to prove my point or win an argument. Anything to keep others an arm's length away. Just anything to stop them from noticing the gapping emptiness beneath.
By the time I arrived at college in 2020, this routine of hiding became a way of my life. Yet in the new faces and days, I felt a piercing moment with the likes I never experienced before. Then all of sudden, things changed. I was invited by a classmate to a Salt Company gathering and I agreed at the chance to be around people. It was there that I heard the gospel and its fullness spoken directly as though it was addressed to me and me alone. It was as if a veil was lifted or rather I was ushered around a corner of some big wall to find all the while I had been wandering alone not in freedom but in captivity. But here at last was the miracle... I hadn't turned the corner on my own for Christ had brought me to it. With this dear friend of mine God reached into my life and hasn't let go since. Out of a love I had not earned nor understood, he lifted me from the ashes and called me out of a prison I had never thought to escape. As it is said, Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners of who I am the foremost. And a great truth, the one that leaves me speechless, is none of it was my doing. I did not reach up to God, and I didn't know how, rather God in his mercy reached down to me. He loved us not for what we have done nor because we are worthy but because he is love. And so he sent his son not just to teach or guide us but to pay for our debts, to face the death we deserve and to stand in our place. He did all of this freely knowing every failure and sin and still calls us beloved.
Christ has transformed me and the change has been unmistakably for the better. For once I was quick to frustration, I find in myself now patience never thought possible. He reached me to be open hearted to see others not merely faces in passing but souls worth loving. I strive, however imperfectly, to put others before myself because this is how Christ lived, putting us first and pouring himself out for us. And so however times I mess up, I am learning to walk in his steps, hoping to follow just a fraction of his example."
Jacey Myers's story
"I grew up going to church. I've never questioned God's existence but before I gave my life to Christ, I didn't trust God had a purpose for me. My life was consumed with anxiety. I felt alone and unloved. I thought that no one truly understood me and I can never be vulnerable around them. I hide my mistakes from everyone to try and look perfect in their eyes. I tried to do everything I could to make myself happy. I worked hard at sports and at school and tried to be liked by everyone. I found my worth in how others viewed me and I never measured up to the standards I created for myself. After years struggling alone, I knew trying to find joy in the things of this world were not working. I started reading my bible and studied it for the first time. I read in it that I was made with a plan and for a purpose. That I was fully known and still fully loved. I realized how much I needed Jesus and recognized that Jesus lived his life to redeem us on the cross and he called me to joy in his mission of redemption by telling others about what he did for us.
I prayed the prayer to God and told him "I don't understand why you created me but I'm going to live every day for you because you have a purpose for me." After I trusted Christ, I felt hope. I felt love for myself that I never felt before. I was able to open up to my friends and family and not try and be perfect around them anymore. I stopped trying to do what I thought would make me happy and found lasting joy in Christ. I spent so long not trusting in God's plan for my life, but looking back, I see that he was working the entire time. He started to open doors to fulfill his purpose in me. My family encouraged me to go on mission to the Dominican Republic. God used me in the life of the kids and families there who did not yet know about Jesus. I have now served there four times and he has effortlessly provided for me to go back each time.
God also created opportunities for me to be a light in my teaching career. I get the chance to show kids the love of Christ every day. When I started leading a city group last year, I was worried that no one would want to come, but God brought a group of girls who knew nothing about each other together to become best friends. I now have friends in my life that allow me to share my struggles and who point me to Christ. I still struggle with the same things but I know now I can take them to Christ and not be alone anymore. I now know my purpose... to be a light and show the love of Christ to this world. I once did not think that God had a plan for me but now that I am about to graduate and step into my first teaching position, I know without a doubt, this is where God wants me to be."