On Sunday November 5th, 2017, Quentin Goodman decided he was going to make the decision to “get well” and follow Jesus. At his baptism, he read the following scripture:
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
John 5:1-7
Quentin talked about how he felt like he was a lot like the invalid that laid by the pool for many years making excuses about why he wouldn’t get into the water. The invalid would lie there watching everyone else receive healing while he made no real effort to do so. Finally, this invalid had an encounter that changed his life. Like the invalid, Quentin had a life changing encounter with Christ. As Quentin got to know Jesus better through the bible studies and teen camp, his eyes were opened. He was able to overcome the fears that had help him back.
Quentin says that the biggest things that helped him overcome his fears in taking this step was “a lot of prayer and to take my quiet times with God serious and not just read his bible like a checklist, but actually let it cut me“.
As a disciple now Quentin hopes to be able to impact a lot of people from his school and have them come to church to experience this same power of Christ he felt.
Quentin was very impacted by what Jesus did on the cross. He says that “it is incredible that Jesus would die for me without any guarantee that i would change.” Quentin was deeply moved by the fact Jesus loves him regardless of his efforts.
To anyone who is currently debating like he was about making a whole hearted decision to follow Christ, Quentin would like you to know that “going through life in the world left me mad empty inside and no sin has a good long term effect” and “now i know what i am doing when i wake up, i know what my job is”
