My Evangelistic Testimony

   I grew up going to church every Sunday with my family, unless I was sick.  One Sunday, when I was in the second-grade, a boy asked our Sunday school teacher why people get baptized.  Our teacher explained that in order to go to heaven when we die, we must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and that He arose from the grave three days later.  Baptism comes after making that belief public in obedience to follow Jesus’ command found in Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Baptism is a symbolic act, which represents the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Baptism is not a requirement to go to heaven; it is an obedient and symbolic act. 

    I previously thought that you would go to heaven if you just believed in God.  However, after what my Sunday school teacher said I was not so sure anymore.  I knew that I believed Jesus was the Son of God, that He died on the cross for our sins, and that He arose three days latter but I had never told God that.  That night, I prayed to God and told Him what I believed and that I wanted to be certain that when I died I would go to heaven.  I later talked to my pastor about my decision and followed it with baptism.       

    I did not fully trust God though until I went through thyroid cancer.  I was feeling fine when my allergist found a nodule on my thyroid, so I knew it was nothing.  After much testing, the doctors could not determine if it was cancerous, so a surgical biopsy was necessary.  That is when if first hit me that it might really be cancer.  I wasn’t afraid of dying because I knew I’d go to heaven.  I was afraid of the long painful treatments that might await me only for them to fail and my life to end in an agonizing death.  I was very scared.  I struggled that night and the next day.  Then, I realized that God was in control no matter what happened, and that I did not need to worry because God would be there every step of the way.  It was time for me to stop worrying about things I could not control.  “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Mathew 6:27.  I prayed right then for God to take away all the worries I had because I was going to trust him fully.  The peace I received at that moment is indescribable. 

    Even now, after five years of being cancer free, sometimes I worry the cancer has returned, only to be reminded of the need to give my worries to God.  I used to think I could handle small things on my own and then if I needed help I could ask God, but now I try to trust God for everything, even the small stuff, to have complete peace all the time. 

    If you aren’t sure you will go to heaven when you die, please email myself.  For those who are sure they will go to heaven when they die, do you put your full trust in God or do you only turn to Him when things are more than you can handle like I used to do.