SO, I JUST GOT SAVED! OK, NOW WHAT?

For starters, welcome to the family of Misfit Christ-followers!!!  If you truly meant the prayer you said with us, YOU ARE SAVED and nothing can EVER change that so from this day forward, you can start thanking God DAILY for His love, mercy, and grace. 

Now going forward, here is what you can expect.  For starters, once the smoke clears and you lose the “buzzy fuzzy butterfly” feeling, Satan is going to start whispering things in your ear, like:  “You’re not really saved, those were just words”…  “You were just caught up in the moment”  “Yeah you are saved alright, here you go making the same mistakes and sins just like before”  or SOMETHING similar to this…

Well first let me just say, SCREW HIM!  He is going to spend the rest of your life doing this so get used to it.  Every time you make a mistake or do something you know you shouldn’t, Satan the douche bag will be right there to rub your nose in it…   Again I say, as long as you meant the words you said in that prayer, YOU ARE SAVED and the blood of Christ covers your past, present AND future sins…  Now that doesn’t give you a hall pass to do whatever you want and to sin on purpose, but a true Christ-follower cannot sin without feeling guilty or convicted about it. 

If you do something and you feel guilty about it, whether it happens immediately or even the next morning, simply stop what you are doing and say a prayer, something like this:

“Father God, in the name of Jesus, please forgive me for x, y, and z, and give me the strength not to do it again.  Thank you for saving me, I love you AMAEN!”

God does NOT get mad at you and is true and just to forgive someone that truly means they are sorry…  The sad thing is, all of us have 1 or 2 things that seem to make us slip and fall more than anything else.  We ALL have them, so don’t feel bad.  For some, it may be lust, and for others, it could be overeating or anger, and again, Satan will be right there whispering in your ear, telling you that you are not saved or that a TRUE Christian would not be a repeat offender of the same stuff over and over again…   This is all a tactic to keep you isolated, defeated, depressed, and down…  Don’t EVER stop asking for forgiveness and for God to help you to have the self-control to stop the things we trip up on the most.  God is the God of UNLIMITED second chances, so just throw that in Satan’s face and ROCK ON!

As of this very moment, you are what I call a “Baby Christian.” This is how God sees you, and He still loves you like a proud parent, even when you have a stinky poopy diaper, so remember that.  Some Christians and churches make you feel as if once you give your heart to Jesus,  you have to come back to church the following Sunday, and be PERFECT when they are far from perfect themselves, but in reality, they all just hide it better… 

A baby cannot stay a baby forever, and there are only 4 things that will make you grow as a Christ-follower, and they are:

1.      BAPTISM

2.     PRAYER

3.     READING THE BIBLE

4.     FINDING A GOOD CHURCH HOME THAT ISN’T TOO LEGALISTIC OR SUGAR-COATED

The bible says that if you actively seek God, He will actively seek you, and these are the four ways to seek him.  We will start with Baptism…

Your FIRST act of obedience to your Creator was accepting His invitation to take Christ as your Lord and Savior.  Accepting this amazing and free gift, added your name in FRESH INK, to the Lamb’s Book of Life! Your debt has been paid, and you are going to Heaven..

Your very next act of obedience is to be baptized.  Now baptism doesn’t save you, but it does separate the “tire kickers” from the “car buyers”… Getting saved is between you and Jesus.  Baptism is your announcement to the world and especially to Satan, that you belong to Jesus Christ…  It symbolizes you dying with Christ and being laid in the tomb with him when you go under the water, and then when you come back up, you are BORN AGAIN, into a NEW life with Christ, FOREVER! We do three river baptisms every year, and would be honored to share this experience with you!

Next is prayer.

Simply put, prayer is nothing more than speaking with God in YOUR OWN WAY…  Too many Christians intimidate baby Christians by using BIG WORDS and speaking a new language I like to call “Christianese,” which they only use on Sundays, and IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!  Here is an example of praying my way VS their way.

ME:  Father God, in the name of Jesus I just want to say thank you for saving me.  I love you Lord.  Help me to make it through this day better than I did yesterday.  Help me to be the person that YOU want me to be.  I love you, AMEN..

CHRISTIANESE:  Oh, precious Heavenly Father who art in Heaven, please pour out an abundance of grace and protection on me today, and giveth me the tools with thy armor that helpeth me to thwart the devil’s plans.  Thank you for pouring out your love and grace through the sacrificed Lamb of God and saving me, blah blah blah….

9 times out of 10 the person praying that way does NOT speak like that any other time except for when they are around other Christians.  It’s just a show-off, ego thing, so do not be intimidated by other people’s prayers.  Speak with him in your own words and remember that this is YOUR personal relationship with Christ. 

Here is a scripture that goes along with this:

Luke Chapter 18 Verses 9-14

9 Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer[a]: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

See what I mean?  Be YOU because it is YOU that God is in love with!  Pay no attention to the windbags.

As a baby Christian, prayer can be intimidating because people always tell me they don’t know what to say.  If that is the case,  just simply thank him.  Tell him you love Him… Ask Him to help you grow and to guide your steps…  As you grow in Christ, your prayers will grow too.  Remember that a baby must learn to talk, and so must you, so RELAX..

Next is the Bible… This is God’s Word.  Many people will mock the Bible and say things like, “That is just an old book written by men and NOT God”… The fact is, the Bible was indeed written by man BUT they were inspired by God himself and here is the proof.  The Bible is actually a book of  66 separate books that took over 1500 years to complete by 40 different authors spread out over different continents.  These Men of God were completing the sentences of people from different lifetimes and continents all over the world with NO DISAGREEMENTS OR FLAWS!  That is IMPOSSIBLE except for divine intervention of our Creator Himself.  The Muslim Koran had only one author and was written in 23 years, while being filled with discrepancies and errors.  See my point? 

The Bible can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be.  Here is how to start with BABY STEPS:

1.      Purchase a LARGE PRINT, NIV or NLT Study Bible. We chose these two translations because they are written more like how we speak in modern English today.

2.     Stay out of the Old Testament for now.  We are living in the days of the New Testament, so you need to get a SOLID FOUNDATION of that so that no one can deceive you with FALSE doctrine, and trust me, it is EVERYWHERE…

3.     The first four books of the New Testament in order are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  These four books are called the Gospels of Jesus Christ…  Gospel simply means the “GOOD NEWS”.  These four books are the SAME story told through the eyes and perspectives of 4 DIFFERENT MEN.  Matthew was a “facts and figures straight to the point” Tax Collector…  Mark was a professional fisherman so, think of a personality type of the reality show, “World’s Deadliest Catch”…  Luke was an educated doctor, and John was the long-haired hippie type… 

So here is how you start the New Testament… If you were having coffee with all 4 of the people I just mentioned, who could you relate to the most?  With whom would you enjoy speaking with the most?  Start with whoever you choose, and your adventure begins! 

Simply start with 1 or 2 chapters a day or more if you LOVE to read.  Learn how to use your study bible.  After you read a chapter, drop down and read the explanation of that very same chapter.  This will make sense when you see the study bible. 

4.     Once you finish one of the 4 books mentioned above, you will then go to The Book of Acts, which takes off where the Gospels left off…  Once you finish The Book of Acts, just keep going through the entire rest of the New Testament in Order.

5.     Once you complete this, START OVER with one of the three other Gospels that you did not read, skip to Acts after that, and read the entire New Testament again.  Then do it two more times, starting with one of the other 2 Gospels left…  By the time you do this, you should have a SOLID grasp of the New Testament.  Feel free to contact us along the way with ANY AND ALL questions or concerns.  We are here for you!

And lastly, you need to find a good group of people to grow with.  Going to church does NOT get you to Heaven, but you wouldn’t know how to do math if you didn’t attend school.  Finding the right church is VERY important for your growth, but it can also be intimidating because there are so many different denominations to choose from. Denominations like Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran Nazarene, Brethren, Church of Christ, and a handful more. 

Now you must remember that Satan is the author of anxiety and confusion, so I pray that this makes it a little easier for you and gets you on your way. 

For starters, we would love to have you with us!  Check out HeavyMetalChurch.Com to find our address!  However, many people we meet live too far away, so here are some things to remember when “Church Shopping”…

1.      Mormon and Jehovah’s Witness, and Seventh Day Adventists, are FALSE DOCTRINE churches, so please stay clear of them.  They only claim to be Christian but do not believe that Jesus IS God in human form and that He rose from the dead, and THAT is the meat and potatoes of the Christian faith. 

2.     You need to find a church that is not too strict and not too loose… Satan is a MILITARY GENIUS and has corrupted something so beautiful, loving, and free, and made it complicated.  A church that is too strict is called a “Legalistic” church.  These churches add rules to the Bible that are not there.  They will tell you that you can only listen to Christian music.  They will tell you ALL alcohol consumption is a sin, when really, only being an alcoholic is a sin.  They will tell you that you must dress a certain way or style your hair a certain way and about a gazillion other rules that ARE NOT IN GOD’S WORD…

Then we have the churches that are too “loose” or “Greasy Grace” as I like to call it.  These churches will pretty much tell you that you can do or live however you want because Christ’s shed blood paid for sin once and for all…  Some of these churches will say that ALL ROADS lead to God and Heaven, but that is FALSE… The ONLY way to God is through Christ, and that is stated NEON SIGN and DUMMY-PROOF in the Bible, so don’t buy the lie..

You need to find a church that preaches the truth with a love tone in their voice, that doesn’t add or take anything away from the Bible and THAT is why it is so important for you to start reading the bible for yourself so that no one can confuse or mislead you. 

Try to find a place that is not too strict and not too loose.  I call this the middle lane, and that is where Heavy Metal Church is at…

In closing,

Just remember that NO church is perfect.  Every single church will contain great people AND people that will want to make you slam your head up against the wall, so TRUST ME when I say that Satan will make damn sure you have A TON of those types cross your path. 

The sad thing is, many people will leave the Church and get a hard heart toward God when He had NOTHING to do with it. Just like you cannot hate the parent because the child turned out to be a serial killer, we cannot blame our perfect, loving God because of some imperfect and broken people. 

Also remember that you will NEVER be perfect on this side of Heaven so please do not get discouraged when you make mistakes or even fall flat on your face.  Shit happens, and so does life! There is NOTHING that you have EVER done or will EVER do to make God love you any more or less than He already does.  He promised this life would be hard, and we are not getting off of this sinking ship called Earth alive...  God is not some genie in a bottle that is going to grant you wealth and a stress-free life. 

Trust me when I say God does answer prayers, but even if He never answers another one for the rest of our lives, He did enough by coming to Earth and becoming one of us through His son Jesus.  He was tortured and murdered on that cross in place of us and rose on the 3^rd day so that all who accept Him will be with him after this evil world is long gone.  That, my friend, is the greatest love story EVER told, and I am glad I will see you in Heaven someday, but until then, it is your job to mature as a Christ-follower and to lead others to Jesus just like we did for you!

We would be happy to send you pamphlets and business cards like we gave you whenever you feel ready. 

Remember, you must actively seek God and He will actively seek you.  You have had a seed planted in you, and now you must seek God so that He will make it grow.   Here is a GREAT story in Luke that makes it crystal clear: 

Luke 8:1-15

The Parable of the Sower

8 After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; 3 Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

4 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

9 His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10 He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

“‘though seeing, they may not see;

    though hearing, they may not understand.’[a]

11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Be the GOOD SEED!!! 

If you have ANY questions, please do not hesitate to call or text us at 937-776-4281 or email us at Bsmith@HeavyMetalChurch.Com!

Take care, and if we don’t see you again here, we look forward to seeing you in Heaven someday!

Evangelist Brian Smith

The First Heavy Metal Church of Christ

HEAVYMETALCHURCH.COM