My Baptism Testimony!

Public Testimony 4/17/19

Introduction: A little information about my past

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Jaclyn Faith Wolf.  I was born on November 7th 1996, in Milwaukee, WI, I am adopted.

When I was one I was taken away from my biological mother. By the time I was 7 ½  I had been through 11 different homes and was sexually abused three times that I can remember. My future was uncertain and the odds were stacked against me. I had learned to survive by only counting on myself and taking it one day at a time. I didn’t have someone to rely on, talk to or trust. I didn’t know the meaning of love or how to even love. I didn’t fully understand what it meant to have a family but I knew that I wanted one, I wanted a forever family. When I was 7 ½ I met my future parents Jerry and Susan Wolf, they were interested in adopting me. We had multiple visits to get to know each other, and shortly after I was relocated to Janesville, WI and placed into their home. After a few months they asked me if I wanted to be their daughter and I said yes. When they told me I was going to be adopted, I tried to make their lives miserable. I tried everything I could think of to test their patience and make sure they really were going to go through with it, after all I was used to trusting no one, and being lied to. I could tell you all the horrible things I did, but I won’t. I guarantee that all the things I did  would’ve been enough for some of you to want to send me back. I was really testing them to see if for just once in my life someone was truly wanting to care for me and was actually going to follow through on their promise to me. They were persistent about adopting me. They didn’t care about what I did, but that I was a little girl in need of family.

Now how does this brief summary of my past tie into me being baptized today? In all honesty it is a simple answer, having faith and trusting in God. As a kid who was ready to be adopted, and who’s future was uncertain I didn’t trust and believe my parents when they said they wanted to adopt me. This was something that I had dreamed about taking place and I tried to mess it all up due to trust issues.

I am standing before you today to tell you that I have overcome my fear, and have learned to put my trust not only in people and relationships, but more importantly in Jesus Christ. I am Trusting and believing that Jesus is God, The Son of Man and that I am a sinner in need of a savior. The bibles says in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  I was a sinner, I am a sinner and I am asking the Lord to save my soul from the eternal punishment that I deserve.

And I am pleading with any unbelievers here today to do the same. Whatever you think this world has to offer you, its not worth it and those things will never fulfill the desires of the flesh. I spent years chasing after things I thought would make me happy, and once I got them it felt great for a second, but those worldly things were never fully satisfying my wants long term.  The only thing you can do is to put your faith and trust in Christ, to drop everything that makes you turn away from Him and pursue Him like your life depended upon it, because it does. Will you take the plunge and put your faith in Him?

John 14:6 says, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”

Christ didn’t say that eternal life was granted to sinners by our good works and trying to be a better person, but through faith and belief in God. Dying to ourselves, completely giving up what little control we have over our lives and committing ourselves to Him.

Jesus trusted his Father in heaven and came to earth to die for a sinner like me, so that I may have eternal life in heaven with Him. Jesus trusted His Fathers plan to come to a world full of hatred towards Him and sacrificed His life for mine. He died a terrible death, he took on the sins of the world on his shoulders trusting that one day we’d give our lives over to him and share the good news that there is a savior and all we need to do is repent of our sin and put our trust in Him.

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

I want Christ to be the center of my life. I am so much happier when I am in His Word and changing my old ways. By being a Christian I know this doesn’t mean my life will be easier, but in fact it will make it harder in the best way possible.

I am now taking on the task by committing my life to Christ and by publicly doing so, I am opening up my life to be on display, as a life of a Christ follower, worshipper and believer. I am showing the world with how I live my life, what the image of Christ should look like. This is me giving up the little control I have on my life, the fears, tears, heart ache, pain, traumas of the past, the joy, love and the laughter to Christ. I want to be forever changed and feel the way I feel when I’m pursuing God all the time. I want people to see Christ’s image when they look at me. I am ready to give my life to Him. I am truly ready to become transformed in the image of Christ, I am ready to stand by my friends, family, my church and My God to bring those to Christ. Christ has been calling my name and I am ready to answer as a child of the One True King.

So today I am standing before you to say, that I have put my faith and trust in God and have accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I am trusting Him with my life and I will use the gift of His death and the promise of salvation to bring others to Christ. So I am asking you as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to help keep me accountable to this promise that I am making to Christ before you today. Praying with me that I will stay on the path towards the eternal prize, helping many others along the way proclaiming Jesus as my Redeemer, Father and Savior.