SFM: Please tell me about your salvation experience.  When and how did you become a Christian?
Palumbo: I was saved at about 16 or 17, while I was in high school.  I was raised in the church, and I grew up thinking I was saved at an early age because of a story my mom used to tell me about my getting saved.  I thought I was saved, and even when people asked me, I would tell them I was saved.  I was a fake.  It was not real, and I knew it.  I never had peace about it.
                I went to a week-long retreat with my youth group, and around the beginning of our trip, a strong Christian girl in my youth group suddenly said that someone in our youth group thought he or she was saved but really was not saved.  I wondered who it was.  The trip went on, but I had this odd feeling inside, as if something was physically tugging at my heart.  It became more and more frequent as the trip went on.  On Thursday night, during a prayer session, the group was reflecting on the week, and again the girl in my youth group gave what is commonly known as a word of knowledge: “Someone here thinks they’re saved, but isn’t.”  She said that person needed to get saved.  Again, I felt that odd tugging at my heart, and I realized she was talking about me.  For some reason, I started to shake, but I did not say anything.  Another girl in the youth group thought it was her, and I felt relief.  The praying went on.  Again, the first girl stated the word of knowledge she had been given: someone that had been thinking they were saved was not saved and needed to be saved.  This time I really started shaking, I began to become physically hot, and the pulling became even more intense.  However, I still said nothing.  Finally, the prayer session came to a close.  One of the leaders said, “Well, I guess we’re done…”  Then, something inside me snapped.
“No we’re not!” I said.  “I need to get saved.”
                My body calmed down and I finally had peace.

Alright, you described the events that led up to your salvation experience, but what changes have taken place since you became a Christian?
Well, one thing I noticed was that my life was peaceful, and it was no longer bleak or morbid, as it had been before.  I had struggled a lot with depression in high school, and I was anti-social.  After I was saved, I became more talkative and friendly.  Even other people noticed that I was not the same depressed kid.  Before I was saved, I was anti-social because I did not want to discourage anyone by anything I said.  Now I realize that God can use me to build people up.
                I can also connect better with my mom, who is a strong Christian.  God expanded our relationship.
                I have a deeper relationship with Christ, one that is more personal.  I knew much already about the Bible and Christianity—I just saw everything through new eyes.  After I became a Christian, I had a new start, and it was real.  I was brought to a new level spiritually.  Before I was saved, it was like I was around the outer court of the temple, but now I have been drawn farther and farther in.
I am a different person. 

Were there any people or tools in your life that God used to help you grow as a new believer?
                Yes, my mom helped me grow as a new believer.  Also, after I became a Christian, I started going to a new church.  It was like a family.
God used that church in my life.  For the Feast of Tabernacles presentation at my new church, I joined a dance team (I—who said I would never dance).  I learned much about worship at my new church.  When I was going to my old church, my relationship with God was sort of surface-level; here at my new church, I went deeper, and I learned more about Hebrew and the Bible.  I also dug deeper into our Jewish/Hebrew roots.

Tell me your thoughts about worship.  What have you learned about worship since becoming a Christian and growing more in your faith?  You mentioned that God used the church you are now attending to help you grow stronger.  What have you learned or experienced there?
                I found that being saved adds feeling, a desire to worship—it is not about going through the motions.  It becomes real.
As a Christian, you should have a desire to worship.  You should worship God from your heart because you love Him.  You should be obsessed with Him because He is obsessed with us and He loves us.  Imagine the Church as Christ’s bride.  He’s looking at us and saying, “I cannot wait.”  More than we want Him, He wants us.  We are the bride of Christ—He is our lover.  A Christian should want to spend all his time with God.
A lot of people think, God’s kind of scary, but I want to go to heaven.  They do not have a deep relationship with Him.  A person’s relationship with God is a lot like the temple in the Old Testament.  When you are saved, it is like standing in the outer court.  You are in His house when you are in the outer courts, but you are not with Him.  As a Christian, you should be pressing further and further into God, into the inner courts.  As you make your way in, there are sacrifices needed, sacrifices you have to make, and there is no going back.
In temple worship, humility was needed in every part of worship.  For example, with the sin offering, a person was admitting, “You are right, and I am wrong.  Here is my submission.”
                In order to put your life on the altar, you need humility.  Humility in worship means that you stop worrying about what people think of you.  It matters what God thinks, and He thinks the world of us.
David danced in the streets in his undergarments, and He was the King.  Everyone knows the dirt on David: he committed adultery.  David was allowed into the temple, where only Levites were ordinarily allowed.  David was known by his songs, by his love for God.  When he sinned, he called out to God.  God was his help.  David was humble, and he was called a man after God’s own heart.  That was a huge compliment.
To worship, we need humility.  When we try to bear the load of life alone, we just run ourselves ragged.  We were not meant to bear that load alone.  That’s why Jesus died.  When we humble ourselves and allow the Spirit to direct our lives, things start happening.
                It is here that we start messing things up.  The Spirit will make things happen as a person surrenders.  We put requirements on things, and we take things into our own hands, but the Spirit will direct us as needed.  As he guides us, what is supernatural in the Bible should be normal to us.  However, it is only through humility and surrender to God that these things happen.
                 
Is there anything you would like to say to fellow Christian young people who might be reading this article?
Use what you have been given for the Giver.  That is a huge part of it.  
                Churches are supposed to be places where you share with likeminded Christians.  You should not just go to church as an obligation.  It should be fun, and it should be enjoyable.  As a new believer, I experienced much joy.  In New Testament churches, people gathered together to worship the Lord.  Other people knew who they were.  There were healings, prophecy, exorcisms, singing, and dancing.  (Dancing is very important!)
People will love to see a church that praises the Lord.  If people see joy, they will want it.  The world wants joy but does not have it.  People are always looking for joy, happiness, and an escape from the world.  Unless you share the gift God has given you (your joy), they will not want what you have.  People do not want what you have, if what you have is the same as theirs.
God’s gifts are for everyone.  If you really want to do something, share your gifts with others.…

Justin Palumbo, 20, was formerly a student at Okaloosa-Walton College and participated in CAF/BLAST during the club’s first semester.  He is planning to attend University of West Florida this summer.