"The Testimony of a New Believer"

Here is the testimony of a young man who has come to faith in Jesus Christ about a month ago. He read it to the congregation at Pleasant Hill prior to his baptism. I ask him if he would allow me to post his testimony on my blog. He graciously said, "yes." I am overwhelmed of God's grace in saving sinners, out here in the "country." To God Be the Glory!

I was first baptized at a vacation bible school around the age of 13. I did not grow up in a Christian household, but my grandfather and my cousin's family had a positive Christian influence on me. I had a good upbringing, but I was somewhat spiritually confused because I grew up with the impression that I could simply choose whatever I wanted to believe and that whatever it was, it would be alright--you might call it spiritual relativism. Unfortunately, this spiritual relativism made it so that I did not gain much from the Christian influences in my life.
I was baptized because I wanted reassurance and I wanted to make, in a small way, my grandfather happy, but it was largely due to my emotional vulnerabilities at that time during vacation bible school. It was not a baptism that occured after repentance and a placing my faith and trust into Jesus. So, I returned home that summer and began to ready my bible and pray occasionally for several weeks, but nothing else changed. Over the course of the next decade or so of my life, I studied and considered other religions and basically maintained a state of agnosticism.
I had always felt that there was an almighty God, but I questioned whether or not it was a Christian God. I felt that things happened for reasons, reasons only God knew. I know that part of what hindered my Christian faith were the poor examples of Christians I knew. I often thought, "I'm better than them--less of a sinner--even without being a Christian."
To this day, I think it would be difficult to find people who would speak poorly of me. Not because I'm perfect, but because I have tried to be good. But, after sitting under teaching here at Pleasant Hill, I realized that my very nature, attitudes, and thoughts were so often wicked and sinful even when I'm doing good. Romans 3:10-12 instucts us that: "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one."
Therefore, I increasingly began to pray, study, and fellowship here at Pleasant Hill as I began to deal with this burden. I came to realize that while I had been baptized, I was certain I had not been saved. That ate away at me. I also realized that I was harming myself spritually by being concerned about what others might think or say. I had fear that professing Jesus and really identifying myself as a Christian would not be easy on me. And though I was right about that fear, I learned that people who are of this world will not accept those not of this world as John 15:18-19 say, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of this world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you."
So, as I dealt with these things I sought answers and prayed and my faith grew. And on March 26th of this year, I began to pray while driving home from work. Speaking aloud during my prayer, I did repent and place all my faith and trust into Jesus Christ. I had been looking forward to that day and felt relieved of a great burden, and I am reminded of Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."
So now, having repented and placed my faith into Jesus, having been saved by faith, I profess my faith and am baptized.
Garet Davidson
April 10th, 2011