Growing up I had been dropped off at Sunday school so many times I can’t count them.  My parents never stayed for church.  We were dropped off and picked up.  If I recall it was done to keep Grandma happy.  That ended when we moved from the Catskill mountains of New York to southern California in the fall of 1979.  In Jr. High after my parents divorced and my father remarried I began walking down the street all on my own to the church on the corner two blocks away.  That lasted a short time, and I don’t remember why I stopped going.

Then as an adult I was invited to church by friends of my sisters brother in law, talk about a removed connection.  I didn’t know any of them well, but I knew they were all Christians.  I knew they all went to church, they all believed in God.  That week they had an event, an evangelist event.  I worked full time and went to school full time.  The one night I could go, I went.  November 27, 1991.  Funny thing is it was youth night, and I was 21.

I heard a gentleman talk about baseball.   Baseball in church?  OK.  The story was interesting.  This baseball player had hit an in the park home run!    He had rounded the bases making it all the way around to home plate before the ball reached there!  Amazing feat of sportsmanship.   Then  the story changed, it started to become more then a  baseball story.  Home plate was compared to heaven.  Third base was compared to good works.  Second base was compared to baptism.  And then came first base.  First base was admitting your sin and inability to overcome it, and trusting Jesus as your Savior.

Back to that baseball player.  He was called OUT as home plate!  WHAT??  The ball never made it to home plate until well after he reached it.  So WHY??  He never touched first base.  He missed it.  He had failed to accomplish the first task on his mission to home plate.  It mattered not that He touched second, touched third, and reached home plate before the ball, he was called out anyway.

Then the end of the story.  If we as people miss trusting Christ as our Savior (first base) the other bases matter for nothing.  We can be baptized (second base).  We can do all the good works we want to (third base).  However when we reach heaven (home plate) we will be called out for having missed first base!  I did not want to be that person.  That night I trusted Christ as my Savior.  I knew that though I had gone to church as a child and as a Jr higher, I had never humbled myself to the point of admitting my personal need for a Savior.  That He had died for my individual sins, that without Him I would reach heaven and be declared out.  That night someone helped me to pray and I became a daughter of the Most High King, adopted into the family of God through the blood of Christ, forgiven and free of the penalty for sin because of Christs death.  Love, the quality of God that allowed Him to extend this grace to us despite the fact that we did not deserve it.

To God I owe my life because He gave it back to me that night.  The night I trusted Christ.  I will attempt to do all He asks of me because without Him I would be nothing, a person living for an end that would have resulted in being called out regardless or wether I hit second and third base.

If you have not trusted Christ as your Savior and are trusting in yourself, in baptism, or in your works to do what only He can do for you, I encourage you to trust Him now.  The first step is admitting to yourself that you are a sinner and that trusting in yourself or anything you can do is not sufficient.   Then you need to trust in Christ and what He did do on the cross when He died for your sins.  To affirm your decision say this prayer “Lord I know that I am a sinner incapable of doing anything that would allow me into heaven on my own.  I believe that Jesus died on the cross, and that His death paid for my sins.  Thank you for giving me a way.  Amen.”

If you have prayed this prayer the next step is to get involved in a local bible believing church.  If you feel you would like help with this, please contact me at kellyporter@Godsanvil.com and let me know about your decision.

2 Comments

1. […] did on the cross, that is where it begins.  The story of how I trusted Christ can be found here:  http://www.LayingOnGodsAnvil.com .  I hope that you would take the opportunity to read it, and pray that you trust Christ and what […]

   Pingback by God’s Anvil » The U-turns — December 6, 2008 @ 5:04 pm

2. […] or if you are thinking about it, you can read about the first time I did the very same thing at Reaching Home Plate Safe . TAGS: grace, Heb 4:15-16, Matt 27:46, mercy, Mk 15:34, molding Posted in: Blessings on God’s […]

   Pingback by God’s Anvil » Finding Mercy — February 9, 2009 @ 3:42 pm

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