Have you just heard of Jesus or do you know Jesus?

Working with the youth group is interesting.  You get lots of chances to experience high school life all over again except you aren't so confused or hormone driven.

In working with the youth I have had several instances where kids have come forward to be saved and it is my job to explain to them how to be saved.  Saved being that you are on your way to heaven, with out a shadow of a doubt.

I have had kids that didn't need me to explain much to them, they just felt God's tug on their heart and they were ready to be saved so I would pray with them and I know they got saved.

Then there are the other kids.  The kids that say they have said a prayer before, but don't feel like they are saved.  So how do you explain how to get saved to someone who knows that Jesus died on the cross for them and believes that He did that and rose from the grave but doesn't feel (or understand) what it really is to be saved and KNOW it?

The only way I know how to explain it is obviously through what I have experienced in my own life.  I grew up knowing about God, Jesus and how to pray the prayer.  I never doubted that God created the world and that I needed Him.  But it wasn't until I was 15 years old that I turned my life over to Him, to me, that is the day I got saved.  They day that I honestly told God that I needed Him.  That I wanted a relationship with Him.  That I was ready to start that relationship.  So I did.  And I still did bad things sometimes, but I would feel bad and I would take those thing to God and ask Him to help me.  The things that I was doing that were bad were things that made me unhappy anyway.

Since then, I have grown closer to God, sometimes very slowly, sometimes quickly, but I always feel that relationship with Him.  When I haven't talked to Him in a while I MISS HIM.

I guess that might be a good way to know if you are saved, if you Miss Him when you haven't been with Him lately.

I run into this question a lot and I honestly have a hard time explaining it to anyone.  I just ask God to help people understand what He is trying to say through my bumbling lips.