My testimony :D

I accepted Christ when I was five years old in my kindergarten class. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into; I just knew the teacher wanted me to. Over the years, I continued to learn more about God and grew spiritually; listening to Bible stories/sermons, going to Sunday School, etc., and it became embedded in my lifestyle. being at a Christian school and church my whole life, and being surrounded by a supportive group of Christian friends, you're probably thinking, "Oh, what a strong religious life you have!" Actually, that is not true at all. As a person who has grown up in a religious environment, I knew all the right answers during Sunday School: God, Jesus, the Bible, and He died for our sins. However, I felt like all the words coming from my mouth was meaningless gibberish. I knew in my head it was the right answer, but it wasn't how I felt in my heart. As I grew older, the difficult social situations and boy problems began to take priority over my faith and love of God. I started to drift away from God and the church. Going to church started to feel like a chore. I was just going through the motions of a typical Christian, but not truly believing in my actions. I began to distance myself from my friends at school and even my church friends. All the parents and my peers at church had such a different reputation of me (a perfect, intelligent, close-to-God relationship [because I served in so many ministries in the church] ), but I wasn't like that at all when I was at school. I was exposed to swearing, lying, and horrible things I never want to relive. As a result, I began to do exactly as my outside influences did. Arguments with my parents became more frequent. I would yell hateful words at my parents that I deeply regretted.I broke away from my church background for awhile. My life was a huge, tangled mess. I felt like I had no one to run to for help. However, God's plan for me had just begun to unfold, especially His plan to focus me back towards HIm. This past summer, I went to our church's annual camp (for high schoolers/middle schoolers), and the theme was Unshakable Foundation. There, the 'foundation' of my faith began to build up again, and I felt so reconnected with the Lord. There I realized that, even as a Christian, I face many trials that God purposely places in my life to test my obedience and faith in His power and might, and even if I feel like I've failed Him, He still will encourage me and bring them back up on my feet; like a father picks his child off the ground when they fall. He not only picks me up, but helps heal those physical and emotional wounds. What a great Dad! He not only does this for me, but for anyone who accepts Him into their hearts. When I returned home from camp, I felt so spiritually refrshed. During our evening devotions with my family, I talked to my parents about what it takes to go to Heaven, and how I can be saved from going to Hell. The realization that whoever never acknowledges Christ as their Lord and Savior before they leave this Earth, they will not be on the list to go to Heaven, and they will be thrown into the Lake of Fire along with the devil, and will live a life of torture for the rest of eternity hit me hard & scared me quite a bit. The concept of time (like a clock) does not exist after the world ends, there will be no longer such a thing as 11:07 p.m. They will be there forever. And suffer. Imagine someone you dearly love; and you will never be able to see them again. That scared me out of my guts, knowing that certain family members have not acknowledged the Lord yet, and they are reaching a very old age. A few weeks before my grandfather (my mom's dad) passed away, my mother shared Christ with him on the hospital bed, and he prayed with her, and my mother felt reassured; as if a burden had been lifted off her shoulders; knowing he will be in Heaven with God. We are still working on my grandmother (my mom's), two of my uncles, my aunt, and my cousin. I really want to share Christ with them, and I hope this testimony would help. Anyways, getting back to my testimony, I was truly frightened that even though I had accepted Christ at at young age, I didn't understand what it meant, and I wouldn't be accepted into Heaven. My dad, who is a Sunday School teacher at our church, told me, as long as someone accepts Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, and nothing more. ( you don't have to do good deeds, but it's still a good thing to do). Asking God to forgive your sins is called repentance. If you repent, you will be saved, no doubt about it. But you still want to try to live a life as an example to others; displaying God through your actions; because when He created us, He made us in His wonderful image. Although we are made in His image, it doesn't mean we act exactly like Him, although we want to try to. Sin is the result of our sinful nature, and it's a choice we ourselves as humans make. Most of us do not want to admit it's our fault (believe me, I don't always like admitting that I'm wrong either). Despite all the sins we may have committed, even if it is as small as stealing cookies from the cookie jar or even murder or burglary, God still loves us, and only asks us to tell Him we're sorry and ask Him to forgive us, then He will wipe our slate of wrongdoings CLEAN. So clean we can see our reflection in it. But of course, we can't even see the slate...Haha. It's all metaphorical. He has made salvation open to us; sinful humans, although we don't deserve it, He stil offers it to us, because we are His children, made in His image, and He's our Daddy, wanting the best and to protect us. So it'd be nice to take this offer while He has it. It's like a free coupon thing for a bucket of fried chicken or something. Yumm ;D Haha. Don't wait. Well, how's this for a happily ever after? I prayed with my dad (my earthly one) after our talk, to ask my true Daddy to come back into my life, to forgive me for my past wrongdoings and future ones I'm not even aware of, and after that prayer, I felt like a reborn Christian; given a second chance, another chance to be God's child. :)

Other notes from my dad (earthly):
"People who feel their sin is worse (than another's), are more grateful of God's mercy and forgiveness/compassion on them and do things for God without feeling obligated to."

"Christianity is having a close relationship with God."
(I felt like I didn't have a close relationship with God, which made me really scared, being a Christian for 10 years, I knew I should act better. I felt people who had just recently accepted Christ 2 or 3 years ago had a better love for God than I had. But don't get me wrong, pleasing God is not a contest/competition. We try our hardest and best, even though it may not be as much as the person next to you, God sees your effort and that you're trying, and He will be proud of you.)


STORY OF SALVATION: (a short version)

God sent and sacrificed His One and Only perfect Son, Jesus, to die a horrible death on a cross, to be teased and spit upon, to have a 'crown of thorns' on his head, and nailed and suffocating on a cross, just so we dirty sinners could have salvation, and we wouldn't have to die whenever we committed a sin. Did you know that if Jesus didn't die on the cross, whenever we sinned, we would immediately die? God has the great power to do such a thing, because He was angry with the first humans, Adam and Eve, for disobeying Him. But He decided He didn't want to destroy us all, so He's giving us a chance. I don't want to give God the image of a merciless tyrant, but I want Him to be more like a loving Father, who just wants the best for us and wants us to make the best decisions, like most parents would. It will sound weirder when I say that Jesus was like a Prince. He was the Son of God! God is the King Above All Kings! And having His Son, the Prince, spit upon and kicked around by sinners? Sounds preposterous for a loving Father to do, right? Even the night before Jesus was arrested, he sweated so hard he began sweating blood, to not go through this pain. What kind of father does that? A loving,caring father. He cared enough about us to do this, and Jesus complied and said, "Your will be done." Pretty cool, huh? We're all princes and princesses, because God is the Father of all of us, and Jesus is our brother, our hermano, our bruh. Haha. And all your co-workers, classmates, teachers, family members, friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, whoever accepts God as their Father, we're all related! Isn't that cool? :D It is for me! I remember in the 2nd grade, my best friend and I wished we were sisters. Don't all girls do that at a young age? I remember a funny quote I saw: "God knew our mothers couldn't handle us as sisters, so He made us best friends." :)

If you want to accept Christ, all you have to do is pray to Him. Here's a prayer I made on my own: (you can do this by yourself, with a family member, classmate, coworker, whatever,whoever,whenever!) & do this with a true, genuine heart! not just read off like the rest of the stuff here.

Dear Heavenly Father,

I know now that you are my Father, and you sent your one and only Son to die on the cross for my salvation. I'm a sinner, and I don't deserve this salvation, but you give it to me anyway. Forgive all the past sins I have committed, and future ones I'm not aware of. I want you to come into my life and work in me, and I hope I'll see you in Heaven. I love you God, my merciful Father. Amen.

THANKS FOR READING! I HOPE YOU LIKED IT!! :D

if you want to know more about the church i go to (Cornerstone Evangelical Baptist Church): www.cebc.net
there's english, cantonese, and mandarin services, and fellowships and sunday schools and ministries for all ages!

PRAISE THE LORD IF YOU ACCEPTED CHRIST AFTER READING THIS! GOD LOVES YOU & GOD BLESS!
& I'm in high school, and our choir is having a musical on the 29th of August, 2009, and the musical is entitled Daddy's Home. It takes place at 801 Silver Ave. San Francisco, CA. @ 8:00 p.m. Hope you can come!