09/05/2016 - AFTER YOU CONVERT

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And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’    Acts 22.16

Your commitment with God begins with conversion. Simply praying asking for forgiveness, and right afterwards, not follow the divine will, will not deliver you from eternal doom. According to the words of Jesus, only those that persevere until the very end will be saved (Mark 13:13). Those who don’t give due attention to this fact must seek the Lord, for there will be no second chance. 

When the apostle Paul still served Judaism and persecuted the Christians, he had an encounter with Christ, who came to him in a very strong bright light just like the sun, and so, he surrendered himself to Him. Soon, this man began to do according to divine will. Once a persecutor, now he was being persecuted, but he did not fear or give in to the threats of the enemy. Likewise, all those who are saved must seek the Lord´s direction for their life. 

After the Most High told him so, Ananias, a godly son of God, went to meet Saul, a former persecutor of the faith in Jesus, and gave him a message to complete the salvation of this man. The newly convert needs to learn the principles of the doctrine in Christ, like repent from dead works, the faith in God, the doctrine of the baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and the eternal judgment in order to progress on to perfection. 

Ananias told Paul to stand up, for the wicked and incomplete faith, spoken by him until them, was keeping him tied to failure. Therefore, he served the evil one, and not God. This detail must be observed by all, because if a person continues acting like his old man (nature), he will dishonor the Lord. 

Following the direction, Saul was baptized, fulfilling the order given by the Savior to His disciples, when He sent them to the four corners of the Earth to preach the Gospel. Jesus has affirmed that whoever believed in Him and was baptized would be saved. Now, those who delay the baptism or decide not to go through it are paralyzing the salvation process in their life, and the enemy comes back along with seven worse spirits. Thus, the condition of this person gets much more serious (Matt 12:44,45). 

When going through the waters, Paul received numerous blessings, which he wrote about it later. In his notes, this apostle spoke about the burial of the old creature, the striping of the body from flesh and the body from sin, the circumcision of Christ, the remission of sins and the coming out from the waters to walk in newness of life. This act is so important, that Jesus placed it as a condition for the salvation of those who accept Him as Savior (Mark 16:16).

In the baptism, the person is purified of their sins and receives justification, through which they are considered like clean by God. There is the need to call upon the Name of the Lord in all things. What will your behavior be like now after what you have learned? Be careful! The foolish virgins waited for the Lord, but they got lost (Matt 25). 

In Christ,with love,

R. R. Soares