God Speaks I Listen

What Kind of Christian are you?

A. I Repented and believed in Jesus Christ?

                                     Or

B. I Repented, believed and became a committed Christian.

This is my own personal thoughts because it’s what happened in my life.

I was introduced to God by my parents and my basic knowledge of God came from attending Sunday school. My earliest memory of that was singing “I will make you fishers of men.” I was about 5 years old. I had wonderful times at the Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Old Westbury NY. One day when I was about 12 I was watching Billy Graham on TV, I clearly remember crying and saying the prayer of salvation at the end of his show. I believe with all of my heart that I truly got saved that day. (Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.) I believe that if I died at that time I would have gone to heaven. I truly believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus BUT…I did not do anything more with my faith except believe. I didn’t serve God or follow 95% of things in the bible at all. I prayed very rarely.

When I married my husband James Nemley we had religious wedding invitations. God was somewhere there but we rarely went to church. We suffered a lot of very difficult trials which led us to finally seek the Lord. A Local church evangelized our neighborhood and we went from being Catholic and Lutheran to joining a Pentecostal church. My husband and I experience God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit like never before. We repented of any sins in our lives and Jesus washed us clean and gave us and enormous amount of peace! We were so changed that everyone noticed.

This is the point my husband and I COMITTED OURSELVES to the Lord! This means:

1. We put God first before anything in our lives. He is our MAIN focus!!
2. We Love God like crazy!!!!!!!
3. We listen to the instructions and council of the Holy Spirit.
4. We read and study the Holy Bible and OBEY the word of God.
5. We are involved in ministry.
6. We shared our faith.
7. We involve our whole mind, body, soul and spirit in a very deep relationship with Father God.
8. We give ourselves as a living sacrifice to Father God.
9. We attended church and bible study regularly
10. We submit ourselves to God and His purpose for our lives.
11. We resist doing sinful things and repent when we’ve missed the mark.
12. We happily give God our time, talent and money.
13. We talk to God a lot.

This happened in 1984 and in the 33 years of our commitment to Father God we have never stopped doing any of the 13 things on this list.

I believe that after I accepted Jesus at 12 that had I lived a backslidden life for all those years.

Jeremiah 3:14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

To be backslidden means: to start doing something bad again after you have stopped it, to relapse, to fall of the wagon, to fall back into ones sinful ways and when a person turns from God to pursue their own desires.

I feel that knowing that I truly believe in the Lord and that I confessed with my mouth that Jesus is my Lord and Savior that I will never be separated from God.   I may be influenced to do bad things but that is something that the blood Jesus shed for me is there for….Repentance.

Romans 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is how I see being saved verses being a committed Christian:

You get all dressed up for Resurrection day…some call Easter and you’re looking all beautiful. You got your hair all done, you’ve got on new shoes and a beautiful outfit. You know that you are looking good. The next day you have on the same outfit. You still look good. Now you’ve had that same outfit on for a week and you look kind of bad. It’s been a month and you’re starting to stink and look real dirty. You still have that same outfit on but it’s soiled now. That’s the way our new faith in Christ looks when we wear it without the cleaning it.   We must be spiritually sanctified.

Ephesians 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

This can be accomplished if you pray this: Psalms 51:7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. This is how you can get that new looking outfit that I spoke about with the Resurrection day/Easter clothes. Jesus blood is the detergent! Then your garments will look clean all the time.

Some variations of committed and backslidden are: (FYI)

1. Fake Christians…Faux salvation with the lips only and no heart confession!
2. Luke warm Christians…Sometimey Christians or Laodicean Christians. They are lukewarm…neither hot nor cold. In and out of Church. Not really doing anything for the Lord because they feel they impressed God when they got saved so they’ll slide through life until the end.

The year before I became a committed Christian God had just healed me completely from suicide attempts and severe depression. I was finally free of this bondage that I had been under for most of my life. I now had the greatest gift which is to be HAPPY in Jesus!!! I had peace of mind!!! But I was still under some spiritual bondage until God led me to a church. I not only became a member but I submitted totally to God’s authority. Every Sunday I was at the altar at the end of the service and God did a very deep work in me. I was a new person and I had a new mindset.

I personally became committed to the Lord when God did these 5 things for me:

1. Healed me internally of all past guilt, hurt and shame.
2. Gave me peace like I never had before.
3. Let me feel His love supernaturally.
4. Made His word alive in me.
5. Filled me the Holy Spirit.

These may only be 5 things but internally they went very deep into my spirit man and accomplish a miracle in my life. I knew that I was a different person and that I was God’s child. It was an amazing transformation. This is why I am very passionate and serious about my walk with God.

I hope my experience has bought some clarity to you. I pray that you would give yourself a spiritual check-up and determine what kind of Christian are you. We are all going to transition to somewhere when our time here on earth is up. We will all have to face God and deal with our actions. It’s wise to make some adjustments now while you have a chance to repent and get things right and in order.

The transformation to being a committed Christian does produce fruit. You will naturally be:

1. More obedient.
2. More prayerful
3. Worship and pray to God more.
4. Do some kind of ministry.
5. Share the gospel.
6. Exhibit the fruit of the spirit.
7. You will be a light to the world.

You will be so hungry for more of God!!!!! (As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. Psalm 42:1) This is how you’ll know if you’re truly fully committed!

I’ve shared my story and my experiences but here are a few scriptures about being committed to the Lord:

Psalms 37:5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:

Proverbs 16:3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.

Job 11:13-14 “So commit yourself to God completely. Reach out your hands to him for help. 14 Get rid of all of the sin you have. Don’t let anything that is evil stay in your tent.

James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Luke 6:46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?

John 14:15 If you love me, keep my commands.

Proverbs 3:6 In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.

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