Delicate First Steps: An In-Depth Look at the Early Stages of a Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ

By MSgt Mark C Woods USAF Retired

Delicate First Steps is just that, the first steps on your walk with Jesus Christ. The difference between this book and others is that as I learn through trials and tribulations, I pass that on to you, my reader. Without having any formal seminary education, my writings are more about the relationship rather than any specific religion. It’s more important for me to write about the relationship at this point since that has been pivotal in my life. The wisdom and knowledge will follow, but first, you must keep your eyes on our savior Jesus Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781973658696

MSgt Mark C Woods USAF Retired

A sinner wrote this book for sinners. The walk or journey to having that solid relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ is challenging especially now. I wrote Delicate First Steps in order to pass on what I learned as a new Christian to aid you in the challenges that you’ll face. I’ve spent a good part of my life in the military and retired in 2014. Along the way, I have learned so much! Now that I’ve settled down in the south as a small business owner, it’s given me time to reflect on my life. This, my friends, is where this book comes from, in reading this I’m giving you an up-close look into my life with all of its trials and tribulations as well as failures and victories. In all that I’ve accomplished, there has only been one constant. The only thing that remained un-changed is Him. In that relationship I have with Jesus Christ, my savior, I have finally found peace. I wish to pass on all that I’ve learned to you, my friends. The second book which is a continuation of this one will be coming out soon.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

The Color Green

I know I said in the preface that it’s not my intent to focus on any one religion, but I need to speak on my childhood. For a short time when I was young, perhaps 7 or 8, my mother attempted to have me baptized in a Roman Catholic Church. My memories regarding why I didn’t finish are limited. The memory I do have was set in a meeting between a Catholic priest, my mother, and myself. The three of us sat and discussed God. In doing so, the priest told me he was colorblind and had never seen the color green. He asked me to describe it to him, I tried and failed. Throughout the years, his words still ring in my ears as I contemplated the meaning. In the past I have attempted to witness and tell others about my faith and belief in the Father, regretfully I failed many times. Sometimes words fall on deaf ears. How do you explain the color green to someone that is colorblind? How do you describe a relationship to someone that cannot see, hear, or touch? This is what we call faith. This analogy isn’t the best since we don’t choose to be colorblind; however, the concept is close. We can choose to talk until we’re blue in the face, in reality, it depends on if they’re ready to listen. When we do catch someone’s ear, then the act of witnessing comes into play. I believe that when you genuinely witness from the heart, your soul takes a step back, which in turn, allows the Holy Spirit to speak through you.

Usually, you’ll know it because you’ll find yourself asking the question What did I say? Were those my words? They were your words, polished and refined through the Holy Spirit. I think that for some atheist, they won’t believe until they actually see God. All we can give them is our testimony by explaining how faith has changed our lives. So now let me witness to you what I have found to be proof.

Life, as in so many other things, requires choices. We have decisions to make. One of these being Faith. Do you follow the Lord Jesus Christ as it’s written in the Bible or do you dismiss it as being false? Do you choose to follow another religion? Age has taught me that there is a never-ending supply of spiritual leaders trying to pull Christians away from God. I decided to believe in my Father, Jesus Christ and, to acknowledge the fact that He died on the cross for our sins.

In doing so, and following that faith, I have found a relationship. Before I started my life as a Christian, I’ve heard others speak of having a relationship. I’d never really understood it. Now that I’ve been a Christian for a few years and have started down my walk, which please keep in mind, is in the infancy stages, I’ve experienced that relationship blossom. He is my father, and I follow Him. I pray for help, and He gives it to me. I pray for comfort, and He gives it to me. I pray for forgiveness, and He gives it to me. I pray for understanding in all things, and He gives it to me gradually so that I have time to think about it. I pray for wisdom, and He teaches me to slow down and think. In all things that I ask of him, I praise Him without ceasing for He truly is the King of Kings! It’s in that relationship with Jesus that I find my reality in faith. In all those prayers and praises, I have seen that relationship others have spoken of on so many occasions. The proof for me is not in any one occurrence; it’s in that relationship with Him. As you continue to walk down that path, eventually, you will see through my eyes. Perhaps this is how I define the color green?

I’ve found that as I grow older and mature as a young Christian, I keep seeing changes in my life that are astounding. Finally, in my life, I’m at a point that I’m starting to calm down. I’ve finally found a sense of peace, which, for someone like me, is hard to find. I’ve let go of all the hate, resentment, guilt, and pain, and with the help of my Lord, I’ve moved on with my life. In a sense, coming from me, that is a miracle.

I think that, in terms of understanding Christianity, many people are put off by the appearance of high standards. They feel that from an adult perspective once you’re Baptized, you are automatically a seasoned Christian, which is not the case. You start by understanding the infancy of your faith. To put this in parenting terms, we are all bad kids! Due to our connection to the flesh, we are flawed. We live in a society that caters to all of our human needs. As we walk with Christ, we grow older and begin to develop a relationship that is indescribable to those of no faith. We try, but again, it’s like trying to describe the color green to someone that is colorblind. A good way to describe it would be using the father-son relationship; when we start out as a 2-year-old, for example, we are in a sense controlled chaos. As we mature in our walk and spend time with Jesus, we begin to develop as Christians which, in my opinion, is God’s plan. We’re not robots, we’re His children! One of the aspects of life that have always amazed me is that when you start life as a non-Christian, you seem to be oblivious to your surroundings and how your actions affect others.

Once you start your walk with Christ, you really start paying more attention to others, and your focus seems to shift from me me me to how can we help others. Jesus enables us to have that sense of inner warmth and love that is hard to describe. His greatness is essentially passed on to us. As we walk with Him and learn from His teachings His love spreads. You could almost compare it to your mom’s chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven. Everybody smells it and the aroma fills the house. Everybody digs in!

Personal testimony, as I described earlier, is the key to being able to witness to others and spread His Word. I do think that there has to be a certain amount of tact or demeanor that should come into play. I know that some will disagree with me on this point, but I think that witnessing and sharing the Word with others can be done without being eccentric. I’ve had people witness to me when I was younger and looking back at the interaction now, I see them as strong Christians. When I was young, working my way towards Chris, I thought they were crazy. These are great people; however, if you approach someone with so much excitement and with too much aggression, you’re going to get a negative response. I encourage you to study the bible and see how Jesus witnessed to others. He spoke softly, from the heart, and only told the truth. Every word He spoke originated from a foundation of purity. We are all sinners and fall short. We can only strive to walk in His steps. To be able to witness like Him we have to be able to speak softly, from the heart as He did. The great news is that He left us a manual for this, the Bible.

CHAPTER 2

Sin

W hen we talk about sin, it’s probably a good idea to start at the beginning. The Scripture tells us that Adam and Eve were the first humans; they lived in the Garden of Eden. Satan, taking the form of the serpent, lied to Eve, which led to the first sin. Please read.

NOW the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Genesis 3)

This was the first sin. Fast forward to when Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, He paid for our sins with His blood, which is referred to the blood of the Lamb. The only perfect human that has ever walked this earth, completely without sin, died for ours.

Once you’re saved through Jesus Christ by faith through grace, then the real battle begins. Let me go into detail. Once you’re baptized you become a target for Satan and his demons. I’ve heard this preached before and completely agree, based on my personal experience. As I found, once I was baptized, it seemed that temptation became a regular occurrence. During my time in the military as a married man, it seemed that every single woman wanted to test me to see if I would bend, I held to my faith.

Regarding my daily fight with sin, I won some battles and lost others. We fail, and we sin. We repent and do the best we can to turn from our sinful nature. We are born again Christians visiting a human world with human desires and needs. Please remember we are born of the flesh and baptized into the Spirit.

When I think of the battle we fight daily with sin, especially sin from flesh, I think of false justification. Being born of flesh, we’re drawn to physical needs and wants, in doing, so it clashes with the teachings of Jesus. So much so that it’s been a reoccurring theme throughout the Bible. I know that many males, such as myself, deal with the sin of being sexually immoral. It’s a never-ending battle that we must endure as Christians so that we can grow in our quest to be more like our Father in heaven. We must be careful not to justify our sin, putting our needs and wants above what our father has directed us to do. As Christians, we cannot disguise our sin. We have to call it what it is; sin. I talk to god every day, through prayer and conversation. I, like so many other Christians have to repent, and start doing things right when it comes to sin. I have caught myself, many times, trying to justify what I did because of my failures. It’s a long hard road to get yourself straight and on the right path. Keep your head up, don’t get discouraged. Even seasoned Christians get discouraged sometimes. The Lord is with you during those hard times and those temptations. No matter how bad things get, NEVER forget that Jesus loves you. During these times He is with you, to either walk with you or carry you. How do you want to enter heaven? Are you going to look great, or like myself weathered, heartbroken, so many dreams crushed, but knowing I did my best to serve my Father in Heaven.

The needs and desires we have are what get us in trouble. We fight with these continually doing the best we can to avoid them while gathering strength from other Christians to continue our day to day fights. The good news is that you’re not in this fight alone, get on your knees put your hands together and call for back up. We have the Son of God just waiting to get into the fight, and when He does, you’ll know it. It’s something as Christians we see regularly, but fail to witness to others. I am also guilty of this, we all need to witness our battles to others, but it’s difficult in our time. Forgive me, my thoughts stray from the point of this chapter. We pray to our Father to join us in this fight against sin, get Him involved. When you do this, it strengthens the relationship between you and your Father. Before I ate my dinner, I prayed thanks to God, I talked to Jesus today about writing this book. I am writing this book from the Spirit. Use the Trinity in your life to guide you through your Christian walk.

Another aspect of sin that I want to talk about, which I do find bothersome, is judgment. We, as Christians, are too