Last month, I found my 10-year-old in tears. Questions of transgender identity had come up in a project she was doing with a school friend. My daughter had explained that, as a Christian, she believed that God created each of us and made us male or female, so that even if we didn’t feel like we fit with our sex, we could know that God gave us the bodies we have on purpose.

My whole life, I was brought up in the church. I attended every weekend and served in ministries. I said the rehearsed prayer with selfish intentions, hoping that it was enough to keep me from going to hell. I thought this was what salvation was. I continued living in this mindset when me and my family started at a new church, and I heard the same Gospel I had heard all my life, but this time, God dug deeper in my heart. The seed had been planted, and it began to stir in me.

oday, I am thrilled to follow Christ and in obedience to him, be baptized as a believer. As Romans 6:3-4 states, “Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.” I am excited to participate in this symbol of my faith before you all today, walking in the newness of life that Christ gives us.

Christ drew me to him with a loving-kindness, knowing what my heart needed, and I accepted him as my savior when I was 13 because I agreed deep in my heart that there was no way even a rule follower like me could possibly earn her way to a holy God.

When we work to redeem the time, we reflect our Creator. God is the ultimate time-redeemer: He redeems all of time, and he redeems at just the right time. We are charged with redeeming the years he has given to us as a reasonable act of worship.

God,

I confess that I have been living a life distant from you, hiding in shame, and controlling every little thing I could possibly control.

But My heart wants comfort,

It longs for it.

In a life marked by turmoil.

Never grounded.

Always at the mercy

of men who only cared for themselves.

Broken promises and abandonment.

All I ever wanted was to be on my own.

Our rallying cry for 2021: we practice the spiritual disciplines and we practice the spiritual gifts!

Here, we’ll do a four part series to define and describe both. Here is Part One, Part Two, and Part Three. The last part today is a list of spiritual gifts and brief definitions.

Our rallying cry for 2021: we practice the spiritual disciplines and we practice the spiritual gifts!

Here, we’ll do a four part series to define and describe both. You can find Part One here and Part Two here. Today’s Part Three is The Purpose of Spiritual Gifts in the New Testament Age by Wayne Grudem.