First Baptist Church, Oak Grove, in Sylacauga
Oftentimes we misunderstand what it means to know God personally. Recently an 89-year-old woman who had thought she knew God discovered the real truth about who God is. While in the hospital she began to search her own heart for some assurance that if she were to die she would go to heaven. She had believed since childhood that she knew God because she had publicly expressed her belief and had been baptized. When questioned about her faith by concerned family members, her only response was, “I know I am saved because I have been baptized.”
This is a common expression by many others like her who believe in God but do not really know Him personally. They have never had an encounter with God that has changed their life completely. In other words, they have never been “born again.” Jesus told Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Nicodemus knew about God, but had never been transformed by God. His knowledge of God left him still searching for assurance of life externally in God’s kingdom.
When a person is born again, he becomes “a new creature” in whom “old things are passed away and all things become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). The person receives a new life that is cleansed of sin, a new love for God and His Word, a new desire to follow God’s will and a new peace that surpasses all understanding. This radical transformation takes place in the heart of a person who is willing to allow Jesus to come in and take control. For the perfect Son of God to come in we must acknowledge our sin, ask for His forgiveness, believe that He died as full payment for our sin and surrender our lives to Him as a living sacrifice.
When the elderly woman mentioned above knew the truth about Jesus, she opened her heart and allowed Him to come in and change her life. Now she knows God and has found the peace she was searching for.
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