Hello all,
My name is Joel B. Keith. I live in Central Florida. I was born and grew
up in Massachusetts. I've also lived in California and Connecticut. I'm 29
years old, and have walked with the Lord all of my life, but felt His calling
to a deeper relationship when I was 14. It was December 1987 when I accepted
the free gift of God's grace through the sacrifice of Christ, and asked Him to
be my personal Lord and Savior.
I was raised in a Christian home, and began reading the Bible when I was
5 years old. I attended the Church of my parents and grandparents, a local
American Baptist Church. The minister and teachers there were good people, but
as I reached that age of reason, God began to impress upon me that I needed to
move beyond the superficial righteousness of the church, and seek the
deeper truths of the Word, namely, that I could not please God by "living a
good life."
God led me to the portions of His word that teach of a new birth, and a
personal acceptance of God's remedy for my sinful state. He showed me
personally, and through others who knew about the commitment I was
learning about for the first time, that I had a decision to make. On December
28, 1987, I knelt at a small Sunday School altar in the vestry of my family's
church, and asked Christ to come into my heart, and set me right with God by
his precious blood, shed on the cross for my sin.
I followed the Lord in Believer's Baptism a week later. The others in my
Baptism & Church Membership class, I discovered from casual conversation,
had never heard about being "saved." I wish I could say that I shared
this good news with them, but I was too afraid of upsetting anyone by
going against the teachings of the church. A short time after that I got my
license and found a Bible-based church to attend. It was difficult to leave
the only church I had ever known, but I never shall regret it.
Because I learned so much more about a life in Christ, and developed such
a deep relationship with Him, that I never could have if I'd stayed. I needed
the food of the Whole Gospel. The milk would suit me no more.
This is my testimony. I can say with the songwriter that life with Jesus
gets "sweeter and sweeter as the days go by." My dear mother followed me to my
new church home, and she and I now share a bond of flesh and spirit,
and I am so thankful for that. I pray every day that Christ will reveal
Himself anew and afresh to those who don't know the whole truth of His Gospel,
and I believe that he is coming again for His Church. Lord Jesus, quickly
come. Amen.
