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2021 Baptism Testimonies

Margot Farrell

Hi, I am Margot Farrell. I am overly excited to be here for my baptism in Jesus today.
I was a baby when I was baptized and then brought up in the Catholic faith. As I got older, my friends were worldly, not godly people. I joined in their sinful ways for years.
One of the very sad things in my life was that I married an unbeliever and we raised 3 precious children mostly without God.
My youngest, Emily, started coming to Grace with Kristine Scoble and became a believer and was baptized. In 2001, I joined Emily at Grace. For several years I would listen to Pastor Ed Trenner speak of God's true words in the Bible and of eternal life after death. For some reason, I would usually be brought to uncontrollable tears during his talks. One Sunday, Jesus hit me that God created me for 2 reasons only to tell His people about the Gospel and to forever glorify Him.
Jesus through Ed had told me that He was sent here to be the only perfect pure sacrifice that God would accept in exchange for all my sins...that Jesus was tortured beyond human recognition, crucified, died, and was buried for all my sins. Amazing!
Then after 3 days, Jesus was raised by God...which meant that I would be raised to glorify God eternally after MY death. Unfathomable!! I was so hooked on Jesus. I committed my life to my Master and my Savior.
I watched baptisms at church and kept thinking...should I, too, publicly show I am truly committed to my Lord and Savior.
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom 10:9)
This is why I am here today to show that I dedicate my life now to Jesus.

Caleb Helsing

Ever since I can remember, I’ve called myself a Christian. I was born and raised in a Christian home by a Christian family, and I’ve been learning about Christ from the very beginning. But as time passed, I began to realize an undeniable truth: You are not a Christian because you are in a Christian family. You are not a Christian because your parents raise you that way. Only through genuine faith and repentance could I become a Christian. For a long time, I missed out on that truth. I was immersed in a Christian world, but now I feel like I wasn’t really there. I felt little remorse over my sin, and little desire to change it. But over time, that changed. For me, genuine faith in God came through the comprehension of exactly how much Jesus loves me. This process wasn’t instantaneous, and I can’t pinpoint a single moment of full conversion, but I know that it began when I read John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” For some reason, this hadn’t really registered with me before, that Jesus’ death on the cross was the ultimate act of love, greater than any other. And it was for me. This simple truth was so important, and I honestly wouldn’t be here without it. But I am here, and I am ready to be baptized in order to express my belief in Jesus and my thankfulness for his great love. I’d like to leave you with a bible verse that really summarizes the reason why I’m doing this. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Scott Helsing

Hello, my name is Scott Helsing. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share with you how I came to Jesus Christ. I was born into the Methodist church and was dedicated as an infant. I enjoyed a loving family and church family growing up who helped me understand what it means to be a Christian. In February of 1986 when I was almost 13 years of age, one of my sisters passed away in an auto accident. That was obviously a very tough and confusing time for me, and I strayed from God as a result.

However, this did not last for very long, as I was talked into joining a youth event at my church in June of the same year. I experienced a lot of realizations in those 2-3 days, but the main one was that God had a plan for me. I came to understand that the hardest time in my short life happened because this was God’s path for me, and it was my responsibility to accept this and learn from it. I came to understand much better what it really meant to accept Jesus Christ as my savior, and so I did.

In the 35 years since that moment, I have loved our God and accepted Him as my father, but have also strayed in lesser ways more than once. Every time this has happened, there has always been something that reminds me of whom I really belong to, and my steps have been nudged back in His path. The years I have spent helping guide my own children as toddlers, when they struggled in just learning how to walk, is a great example of what God must have been doing for me. His love and continual guidance was always there, all I had to do was listen.

The most recent example of His guidance was in our move to southern California. I had other options when it became apparent we needed to move from Virginia, and I took an employment opportunity that made sense to me based on what I wanted for my family and I. It only took another 3 months from that decision to see how wrong it was, and Lee Ann and I’s only prayer at that point was to ask the Lord for one path moving forward. He provided just that, one employment opportunity instead of the multiple ones I had before. I listened this time around, and that led us to Orange county and GCO.

It’s easier to see how this all came to be now, but during the stressful life situations we all experience the only way through them is knowing that we can talk to Him, trust in Him and let the path be shown to us. This is what God has told us in his Word, as in Psalm 48:14, “...that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever”. My time in His creation has shown me that I can trust in Him without fear of being forsaken, and that I will be presented in the end blameless, because He chose me and I have accepted that truth. Thank you for listening and being with me here today.

Zion Ma

I love and trust Jesus because if I don't love & trust Jesus and repent, I would go to Hell and you keep dying forever and stay alive in the fire and feel the pain. That's not the only reason. I believe that Jesus died and rose. Jesus died because someone had to take the punishment. He could have let us die on the cross or in Hell, but he took the punishment. Not no one could take the punishment--someone would have to take the punishment because every time someone sins they have to be punished. God is the king and the best judge and he knows what should happen. The gospel in five words is "Christ Died For The Ungodly". I am ungodly and so is everyone. As you live more in life, you don't sin as much as you used to if you are a believer. I want to be baptized today because I know that God wants me to and the Bible says if you know God wants you to get baptized, then get baptized. Baptism represents that if you're in a tomb and then you rise up.

Do McAllister

I want to thank God for all he has done for me but we just don’t have enough time. I guess it all started for me when I saw Billy Graham in L.A. This is where I truly became a Christian. I understood the Gospel for the first time. I was a sinner but God still loved me. I saw His Grace and Mercy.

I also want to thank God for bringing me here to Grace Church of Orange. It is here where I grew in my spiritual life. I was no longer a Sunday Christian. I became a 24/7 believer. I have had a desire to be baptized for quite a while. I want to be baptized to be obedient to Jesus-to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is my savior and Lord. I want to glorify God. By God’s grace, I have been saved through my faith in Jesus. This is a gift from God. I cannot be saved by good works but I can and will be saved by my faith in Jesus. He died on the cross for our sins-God so loved us that He had his son pay such a high price for our sins. Jesus defeated death by rising on the third day. He will return one day and I hope I am here to see that day.

Lastly, I want to thank God for bringing me here to be baptized. Thank you all for being here and listening.

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