I can't believe that I am now a new creature in Christ, as Pastor has said at church; yet on Sunday, I finally got brave enough to ask Jesus into my heart!

I'd been going to church for years, and I'd seen people go up to the front after Pastor preached, but I really never paid attention.  Then last week, he talked about Heaven and Hell, and what would happen if someone didn't ask Jesus into their heart.  It scared me so I decided right then on Sunday to accept Him.

I could have done it then, and I was all ready to, but then I chickened out.  I was so mad at myself, but I bet Jesus was even madder!!

Well, on Sunday, after his sermon, Pastor called for anybody who wanted Christ into their hearts to come to the altar; he would then pray for us and give us some basic information about our new lives.  I was sitting there, and all of a sudden, I felt like the world's dirtiest person, like I hadn't taken a bath, and I felt bad inside.  I then made the decision to go down front, which is what I did.

Pastor said all one had to do to be saved was ask; Jesus would then do the rest.  He said it was very simple.

When I prayed the Sinner's Prayer ("Lord, I believe You died fror me.  Well, I am a sinner, and I need you in my life.  Please come into my heart; I would like to have You in my life!  I ask that you forgive me of my sins; I want to be a Christian and have hope.  I pray this in Your precious name, Amen!"), I started crying.  I felt like all the bad stuff of the world had lifted off my shoulders, and I felt clean.  Whole.  Refreshed.  It was a wonderful feeling!  I didn't want to cry in front of everybody, but I couldn't help myself.

Pastor told me that it was the holy spirit coming down into my heart and fixing my heart, taking away all the bad junk from it.  He said that it was okay to cry; he said that Jesus cried too (and he still does when people don't accept Him or disobey Him).

He then hugged me and the other people who'd gone down front, and after he gave us some stuff about our new walk in Christ, he sent us on our way.  I went to where I was sitting with my mom and dad, and I cauld tell they looked proud of me.  Well, I was proud of me, too.  I had done one of the hardest things in my life!

Mom and dad are Christians, so they brought us kids up with the church.  We knew about God, Jesus, Moses, Abraham, David, and all the other Bible people, but good works by themselves wouldn't get us to Heaven.  We needed to ask God to forgive us, and we needed to have Jesus in our hearts, or else we wouldn't get into Heaven.  I knew all that, but it didn't really hit home until I'd come to know Jesus as my personal saviour this past Sunday.

I was now a child of God.  My name was now written in the Lamb's Book of Life.  Because I had made the decision to accept Christ, I would now have a future and hope, and when I died (or when Jesus came back, whichever happened first), I would go to Heaven, and I would be with God, Jesus, Mary, and all the Bible people forever and ever.

Yet even though I was now a Christian, my life was only beginning, Pastor said.  He said that I would have to get into ministry and "preach the good news" to my friends or those people who didn't know about Jesus Christ (or hadn't accepted Him as saviour yet).

He said that being a Christian was one of the hardest things a person could do, but the rewards were great.  He said that we would still have problems, but all we had to do was call on God (or Jesus) and trust in Him and expect "great things" if we did.  God would answer our prayers, and that was a promise.

Since I became a Christian, I feel so much happier, and I've tried to be nicer to people, even that bully Jim at my school.  I find it makes me feel good too.  Maybe one day I can introduce Jim to Jesus; I bet I could do that! :)