Hello everyone. I want to be baptized. Lately I am motivated by my fear of hell. I also have struggled with doubt. I pray, read the Bible, seek wisdom from podcasts and other books, attend Church and strive to live a Christian lifestyle according to Gods commandments and the teachings of Jesus. I was born and raised in the Church so sometimes I wonder if all of this is real or if I just don’t know any different. I am pursuing God everyday because I want stronger faith where I do not have any doubts. I don’t want to have these doubts but the thoughts just pop into my head. I have not been baptized yet because I am not sure if I should wait until these feelings of doubt and fear of hell go away. My questions to this community are:

1. Should I wait until the feelings of doubt and fear are gone to be baptized? This could take a long time though.
2. If I have doubts in my faith and if I am motivated a lot by my fear of hell would that discount my baptism if I did not get rid of this feelings first?
3. Am I overthinking this whole thing? Should I just go ahead and be baptized because I obviously want to be? I have always been committed to the lifestyle and I am more committed now than ever.
4. Should my baptism be in front of a crowd?

The Bible has baptisms in crowds and in private. 5. Is it bad to fear hell so much? I only fear because I feel like I am not saved. Does this show lack of faith or does it show that I do believe in God because I fear his punishment? Maybe it just shows I want to be with Him and want to show action here on this earth by being baptized. 6. Is it bad to desire to be baptized for my salvation? I want to be in Heaven with God and other believers. Is it bad that I also want to be baptized so I do not suffer forever? 7. I fear dying because I have not been baptized with the right mindset. If I die before figuring this out and being baptized will I go to Heaven? Or will God see that I am a follower and I just put off baptism because I don’t want to be in the wrong mindset or have the wrong desires. Maybe I am overthinking all of this and maybe God isn’t angry with me since I am pursing Him even with my doubts and fears. 8. How can I decrease my fear of hell and increase my love for God? 9. Do you have any courses, lessons, podcasts or books you’d recommend before getting baptized? 10. Is God mad at me for being confused? I want to be on His team and make it clear to Him and the world I am on his side

I was baptized when I was young but I don’t think I had the right mindset. Some say I don’t need to be baptized again. Others so I do because I didn’t have the right mindset. Some people have told be they 100% believed before getting baptized. I want that full proof faith. I have been praying and trying to get it for a while but I still have my doubts. I want to do it again with the right mindset but I don’t want to make mess it up by not having the right mindset. Do you have to fully believe before getting baptized or can you have doubts of God and fears of hell? This has caused me so much stress, anxiety and even depression. I do not sleep well, have lost interest in my other hobbies and have been fully consumed by this issue.

Thank you to the whole community for giving me a space to make this post. Also thank you to everyone who shares their knowledge

Daniel 2:17-18 “Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.”

As I mentioned before, Daniel loved and trusted God since the days of his youth. He suffered many things in his life, but he remained faithful to God. As a youth, Daniel and his friends were taken as captives from their homeland when the Babylonians captured Jerusalem. A year of captivity had passed and Daniel continued to worship the one true God.

He didn’t worship alone. His friends were with him. He went to them and encouraged them to join him in prayer asking God for mercy and for guidance. God heard their prayers and directed their path.

I love it when I get a call or a text asking me to pray with someone. Often it’s a health issue, but there are many reasons people ask for prayer; problems with health, relationships, career, finances, decisions to make, …

God cares about every aspect of your life, and is always on ready to hear from you. He encourages us to pray together and to pray for each other.

I have been comforted many times by the knowledge that others were praying for me. The principal in the school where I taught told me once that his church was praying for my church. It was during a time when a minister of my church had been sentenced as a child offender. It was of course in the news and my principal knew that something like that would hurt the whole congregation. How comforting it was to hear his words. He didn’t speak words of judgment, but words of prayerful support.

Who needs your prayerful support? Do you need to ask someone to pray with you?

🙏Father, thank you for always loving us and wanting to hear from us. You are always available. You know all our needs. You know our need for community and for helping each other. You know the needs of those we pray for even if we don’t. You are so awesome. Thank you for always hearing us and responding to our pleas. May we also always hear you and respond to your guidance. In the name of Jesus, amen. 🙏

Mark 4:40 “And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?”

Jesus and his disciples were on a boat when a high storm seemed to threatening. Jesus was sleeping and the disciples woke him because they were afraid. “he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”

After he calmed the sea and wind, he asked them why they feared. Where was their faith? They had just witnessed him do many miracles. Yet, the storm was big and threatening to them.

How much are we like the disciples? Personally, I’ve experienced miracles in my life. I’ve experienced a healing that did not come by way of doctors and meds. God has answered prayer after prayer. He has calmed my fears and directed my path. Yet, when a new storm hits me in the face, my first instinct is to fear.

When my granddaughter was little, she wanted go out and play, but it was raining. She went out on the back deck, reached out with her arms and said, “Peace. Be still.” It stopped raining right then.

Oh, to have the faith of a child. I’m getting better. My faith is growing stronger each day. My fears and anxieties are less threatening. I start and end each day praising God. I speak of my love and appreciation for him. I listen, or at least try to listen, to what he wants to tell me. I truly believe being intentional in my walk with the Lord has helped me to grow my faith.

And it’s a journey. I’m glad I’m not alone on it. God is always by my side, lifting me when I slip, sometimes carrying me, but always with me.

🙏Father, thank you for loving me and for being patient with me as I grow in my relationship with you. I want to trust you to always catch me just as a small child trusts his daddy to catch him. I want to laugh in the face of problems knowing that you are always in control. Wherever your Spirit leads me today, help me to be fully awake and ready to lovingly respond in faith. Grant me courage to step out in faith to do and be a blessing of your love and peace. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen 🙏

Isaiah 2:2 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.”

God’s mountain was established as the highest of the mountains. This isn’t referring to a mountain like the Rocky Mountains. It was the mountain of God’s House.

God’s house is solid, towering over all mountains. All nations will flow to it like rivers and streams flow into large bodies of water.

Think about that for a minute. The day will come when we will all flow toward the mountain of God, toward Zion.

I was at our family’s reunion in Michigan. We went tubing down the Rifle River. We floated through shallow waters, deep waters, somewhat swift at times, but other times we had to cause our tubes to move.

We all headed to the same place, but at slightly different paces. We knew what we needed to do to get there. We helped each other along the way. We had a common goal, a vision you could say. We knew where we were headed. It was a happy, joyous journey.

You are I are also on a journey, hopefully headed in the same direction. I’m headed to the mountain of the Lord. My goal is Zion, God’s kingdom on earth as it in in Heaven. That’s the vision Jesus gave us when he taught us to pray.

Are you with me? We know how to get there. We have the road map. Jesus told His disciples in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

🙏Father, Thank you for your love, your constant presence with me, your Spirit who resides in me, your forgiveness and your guidance. Wherever your Spirit leads me today, help me be fully awake and ready to respond in love. Thank you for your son, Jesus, in whose name I pray. Amen. 🙏

2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

This morning, as Dennis and I were repeating The Shema, I had a strong urge to change a word and in my mind that’s exactly what I did.

The Shema is prayed twice daily by most Jews and many Christians. It’s found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. “4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hands, and they shall be as ornaments between your eyes. 9And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

In my mind I heard, 4 “Hear, O SALLY: The Lord your God, the Lord is one! 5And I shall love the Lord MY God with all MY heart, and with all MY soul, and with all MY might.

I continued to make this scripture my personal prayer and commitment to my Heavenly Father. Later, as I read the passage from 2 Timothy, I thought more about it. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,”. We simply need to personalize it as we read it.

Sally, everything you read in the Bible is God-breathed. As I, Sally, read it, I will allow God to use it to teach me a life lesson. I will welcome his rebuking and correction in my life. I will see how he is training me personally to live a more righteous life with him. And then I, Sally, a “servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

The next time you open your scriptures to read, take time to insert your name in those passages. It can be powerful. It was written for you so that you may feel the love and power of your Heavenly Father.

🙏Father, thank you for your love and guidance. Thank you for your written word that teaches, rebukes, corrects, and trains me to be a better servant. Thank you for the joy you place in my heart. I love you and want to serve you always. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. 🙏

I appreciated this thoughtful presentation by historian David Howlett. "Between Care and Commodity: The Sale of the Kirtland Temple" https://youtu.be/sPq8ikAKhmA

Daniel 2:19-20 “During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven”

I have always loved reading about Daniel. He loved and trusted God from the days of his youth. He was faithful and tried to live according to the teachings of the scriptures. It wasn’t always easy for him.

As a youth, he and his friends were taken prisoners by the Babylonians. Even then, he obeyed God. He made choices that went against his captors, but were aligned with what he felt God wanted.

I can’t begin to tell you his story in this post so I urge you to pick up your Bible and read it for yourself. As you do, ask God how it relates to your own life.

This I will tell you. No matter what Daniel faced, no matter how his own life was threatened, regardless of the unfairness and injustice handed to him, Daniel trusted and worshipped God.

He had no church available for him to go to and hear the word of God. But that didn’t stop him from worshipping God. He didn’t make excuses. He simply praised God in all things. He prayed regularly. Even when it was forbidden to pray to any God except the king, Daniel prayed to the one true God and didn’t make a secret of it. He didn’t just go through the motions, he worshipped our Lord.

Daniel knew the great commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, and might. (Deuteronomy 6:5). He knew where to go for true strength and wisdom. He knew who comforted him whether he was free at home or a captive in a foreign land. So every day, morning and night, Daniel could be seen and/or heard praying to our one true God. He did this throughout his life.

God is faithful and loving and will answer your prayers just as he did with Daniel. Continue steadfast in prayer, believing that God hears you and will respond. Then wait and listen.

Like Daniel, I have heard God speak to me. God has come to me in a thought, in a dream, through another person, and numerous other ways. Don’t limit how God may respond. Just listen and praise the Lord. “During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven”

🙏Father, thank you for your love and guidance. You are an awesome God who hears and answers prayers. As I continue in my faith journey, I know you walk with me, picking me up when I stumble and encouraging me every step of the way. Wherever your Spirit leads me today, may I be fully awake and ready to respond in love. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen 🙏