A Baptism Testimony: Jessica Tucker

Recently our church concluded a sermon series on the sacraments. The motivation for this study was to grow in our understanding, appreciation and right practice of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Over the past two years as our pastoral team studied and prayed, we realized that there were some deficiencies and inconsistencies in our administration of the sacraments that needed to change. One result of these changes is that we've had a lot of people to baptize. We've begun doing these within the Sunday meeting and it's been wonderful. In the coming week, I'd like to share a few of the testimonies people have shared before their baptism. I hope they'll encourage you.

Jessica Tucker was baptized on September 9th. I was so affected as this 20-year-old young lady, raised in our church by godly parents, now had this opportunity to stand on her own and testify to the transforming work of the cross that has brought her from death to life. Here is the story she shared:

I've grown up in this church, I've come here every Sunday, attended the school, and been taught that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. Although when I was younger I didn't quite understand it. As I've grown older, those childlike words have become dear to me.

All the time I attended Covenant Life School and memorized Bible verses and went to Bible class, I didn't understand the real purpose of it all. I may have looked like I was doing the right thing, but my heart was set on the wrong path. I couldn't wait until I turned 18 and I could move out, stop going to church, and finally have some fun!

There was one catch in this plan. I was terrified. Constantly, my thoughts nagged at me as to what would happen to me if I died. It scared me, because I didn't know. I tried to reassure myself by thinking, "I go to church! I know the Bible! Jesus died on the cross!" But it just didn't bring me peace.

I continued to brush aside this anxiety for a long time. In my freshmen year of high school, my dad took some time on Christmas break to read us kids a portion of Randy Alcorn's Safely Home. Every morning, the main character woke up and asked himself "Am I ready to die today?" I asked myself this question and could not answer it. This scared me. A few weeks later, I was reading the booklet handed out at the 10:31 banquet and ran across a testimony by a friend of mine. She wrote about being near God's kingdom but not in God's kingdom. While reading her excerpt, I realized that was me; I was near, in that I knew the answers and how to act, but I wasn't in because I had not made the relationship with God my own. So on January 14, 2002, I repented of my sin and trusted Christ to be my savior!

God has done nothing but pour out his grace on my life ever since. He has led me through trials, provided grace, and brought me closer to him. I am so privileged to be a child of God! He brought me from a place of hate and a desire to get out from authority and church, to a close relationship with Him, where I am so aware of his love and grace on my life.