September 11th now symbolizes life in our family! This is the day Josiah chose the Kingdom of Light and received the ultimate gift: salvation from his sins. We are so thankful! Since Josiah was a baby we have been praying that he would accept Jesus as his Savior at the earliest possible age, but to be honest there have been plenty of times in the past 1 1/2 years that we have put him off. in making this decision. We wanted him to have a true understanding of the decision he was making. Here is how it happened…
Josiah came into the living room that evening to where Jody & I were working. He asked Jody to read to him “that thing on your phone that has a bridge”. Jody has a “Steps to Peace with God” app on his iPhone and he used to go over it with Josiah regularly but it has been months since I have seen them look at it. It was a bit random for Josiah to mention it out of the blue but Jody pulled it out and started reading it with him. It discusses how we are separated from God because of our sins and even if we try to do good things, go to church, etc., nothing WE can do will bridge the gap between us and God. The cross is the only acceptable bridge that crosses the gap between us and God. Jesus’ death on the cross is the only way that we will be found acceptable in God’s presence.
When Jody got to the end, Josiah said, “I don’t want to be on the enemy’s side, want to be on God’s side!” After discussing more with him, we felt peace that Josiah truly had an understanding of his sin and his need for Jesus. He prayed to receive Jesus! When he was done praying he started laughing and jumping and kept saying over and over, “I just have so much joy!” It was precious because we know that the Holy Spirit visited our boy that night in a way that he hadn’t experienced before. He not only experienced salvation through Jesus but he experienced a taste of the Holy Spirit. And I must say, his joy was contagious! It was a really fun experience for our whole family. Lucas was there watching and learning and Josiah quickly ran into my parents room to tell Grandmom and Grandaddy all about his decision.
Yesterday, November 4th, Josiah was baptized. Here is a picture of him being interviewed for a short video that was played just prior to his baptism at church last night. It is him talking about his decision to accept Jesus and about why he wants to be baptized.
This was a fun night! We are overjoyed for our little boy to be a mighty warrior in the Kingdom. Pray for Josiah that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit and have a deep burning passion for the Lord, for His Word and for His Church.
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