I haven’t always been who I am now. That seems a bit trivial, as no one ever is, but by this I mean that I am a completely different creature. Let me tell you about it. I was not, generally speaking (and those who knew me then will think I should have left out this qualifier), a well-tempered child. I was always on the lookout to get the best I could for myself and stick anybody who stuck me. I knew what I wanted to do in everything; namely to impress as many people as possible. Then, when I was about eight years old, I did something different. I had been in church from the time I could be carried, and had missed church services only for fire, famine, or sickness that kept me from moving. My parents were Christians, and I learned about God from early on. I knew for a few years that I wasn’t living as I should, and it bothered me. I knew what I had to do to be saved. One morning in church, I decided it was time. During the sermon, I quietly zoned out of the preaching, and prayed to God. I asked Him, as I had been taught, to forgive me for my bad life, and to come and live with me. That same morning, I shared the decision with the church and with my family. I was baptized the following week.
You’d think I’d learn, even at that age. Well, as boys do, I sort of drifted away. I went for several years putting God in His corner of my life and generally going back to my old ways. Still tempermental, still after my own ends. I was bothered by this for, I guess, about six years. Finally, I got the idea that I needed to make things right. While I’d thought about it for years, I finally was decisive enough to do it at a church camp. After a moving sermon, I went off alone and prayed. This time I was older, and in complete control of my thoughts. I talked with God and told Him that I knew there was a lot about me that needed to change. I asked Him to take me back, after years of straying from a committment that was initially made by one too young to understand it. And, thank God, He did. Since then, there has been a drastic change in me. A lot of it may be written off by some people who saw it as simply growing up, but I was closer to it than anyone, and I can pinpoint the moment it happened. Now I live for God. I do fail still. I’m not perfect by any means (again, those who know me can bear witness).
The Essay on Martin Luther God Church Degree
... Writers sufficiently, unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with prophets, such as Elijah and ... of the most talked about people of his time. Little did he know that, that simple Christian ... He realized that the phrase "righteousness of God" in Roman 1: 17 did not mean active ... passive righteousness, by which humans receive righteousness from God. Words took on new meaning to Luther such ...
But I am a new creature, alive both now and forever in Christ.
