My Testimony

I am excited to share with you my story, that I may proclaim the excellencies of God Who called me out of darkness into His kingdom of marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). Romans says, “for those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.  And those Whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:23-25a). All who believe in Jesus will be saved (Romans 10:9-13, John 1:12-13, 3:36, 11:25-26). We know that saving faith in Jesus requires repentance of our sin, from which we cannot save ourselves; for this we need a Savior (Matthew 3:8, 4:17; Luke 13:3, 24:46-47; Acts 3:19, 5:31-32, 11:18, 20:21; Romans 2:4).  Therefore, true salvation will result in a changed life (James 2:14-26, Romans 6:1-23).

When I was twelve years old, my mom took my sister and I to a Bible study on covenant. The Bible study required us to spend time in the Word five days a week and, in those days before my salvation, I did not love to study the Word of God.  As 1 Corinthians 1:18 says, in my dead state the Word seemed foolish. But what I did love was doing “the right thing.”  I was very well aware of my sins, but I wanted to save myself, to reach God through my own right actions.  So, on the last day of class I was furiously trying to finish all of my homework in the car on the way to church.  I was in the back seat, and I read a passage from Hebrews. “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet.  For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.  Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a Great Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water”  (Hebrews 10:12-14,19-22).  It was then that God removed the veil from my eyes. He showed me that I was not saved and that I could not save myself, that the only way to the Father was through Jesus Christ. He caused me to turn from my sin and to believe in the name of Jesus, which began a pattern of repentance in my life that has continued to this day, twenty years later. 

As a believer, I love His Word. It no longer seems foolish but rather is the power of God for salvation because I believe (1 Corinthians 1:18) and with unveiled face, I am beholding the glory of the Lord, and am being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord Who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).   God has also given me a love for my fellow believers and especially a love of studying the Word with them.  As the Hebrews passage which God used to call me goes on to say, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He Who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrew 10:23-25).

This is my story, but it isn’t actually my story.  It is the story of the goodness and kindness of God my Savior, of how He saved me not because of works done by me in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, Whom He poured out on me richly through Jesus Christ my Savior, so that being justified by His grace I might become an heir according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7). 

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*All Bible quotations are taken from the ESV unless otherwise stated.