My Personal Testimony
When I think back on my childhood I can't remember ever being taught about Jesus Christ. Either I hadn't been told or I had chosen not to hear. Of course I did know what hell was, or at least I thought I knew. Hell was the place where bad people went when they died. I knew I didn't want to go there.
I never thought about the alternative, but I did think about Hell, and how to avoid going there. For most of my youth I tried not to do "bad" things. I didn't listen to heavy-rock music. I stayed away from drugs. I just tried to be good.
As I got older I wanted to fit in with my friends. The cool people, it seemed, were doing the bad things. Eventually the world and all of its temptations overcame my will to be good. I started doing drugs and other things I shouldn't have been doing.
One thing lead to another and ten years later I was lost, hopeless in a life full of sin. But the truth was, even if I had managed to stay away for my entire life from all the things that I thought were bad, even if I had lived a life filled with doing good things, I would still be a sinner and the things I did or did not do would never get me into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Eight years ago, when I finally heard God calling me, I was broken, I had no lasting peace in my life and I knew I was missing something vital. I can look back at that time and I know there was a spiritual battle going on inside of me. Satan had me, but God wanted me. It was my choice.
It was then that I finally heard the good news. God had brought me to a place where I was finally ready to accept His Word. The Bible began to come alive for me and I understood that I needed Jesus in my life. I knew He was real and I knew He had died for me.
I confessed with my mouth that Jesus was Lord and I believed in my heart that God raised Him from the dead. I gave my life to Jesus Christ and I was saved from an eternal death.
That's it. I couldn't get into heaven by just being good. We are all sinners and nobody can get into God's glorious kingdom on their own merit. It's only by the blood of Jesus Christ that we can be forgiven for our sins. Jesus, the Son of God, willingly sacrificed His own life to pay the debt for my sins.
After I gave my life to Jesus He began to shape and mold my life into the life it was meant to be. I finally began to feel a purpose for living. The fear of death no longer haunted me because I knew that I now looked forward to an eternity spent in a new creation, one without pain, suffering, or death. I now looked forward to an eternity spent with my Heavenly Father in His glorious kingdom.
It's amazing what the Lord can do with our lives. He can take a shattered life of someone who is lost and make it filled with purpose and direction. With The Lord in control of my life I now feel peace, true joy and most importantly hope!
Comments
My name is Scott. I have struggled my erinte life with my relationship with God. I believe that Jesus died for our sins. I believe that God watches over his children. Over the years I have attended many, many different churches. Do you ever have that feeling that you just don't fit in somewhere? It was like that for me. I believe there is a plan for us, if you'll only give yourself over to Him. From the moment I walked up to the door of the Georgetown Library and met Darla, I felt as if I was home at last. Since meeting Darla, I have met John, Phyllis, and a host of others. All made me feel welcome and all made me feel at home. To be in the presence of God among so many great people, well it was just heavenly. Butch spreads the word as if he just can't hold it in any more, with passion and a zest for living the life of a man of God. Thank you for making me feel welcome and thank you all who attend our biker church for welcoming a stray lamb back into the fold.
Hi Anthony. (Remember me? )The first one misses out any pnocect of:- personal transformation- community and kingdomThese are both clear and strong in the second, and I would argue they are exceptionally important in the Bible. "The good news of the kingdom" is the Bible's summary of Jesus' preaching, which would be difficult to see in the first.However, justification by faith alone is certainly not as clear in the second. I think we need to see how the problems of both guilt and sinfulness are dealt with in the gospel. If God took away our guilt but not our sinfulness, heaven would be horrific. If he took away our sinfulness but not our guilt, then he has abandoned his own justice.However, I'm not sure every gospel summary has to include every angle. For example, summaries that focus on guilt/innocence, or shame/honour, or fear/power are all legitimate. However, our teaching as a whole needs to address the imbalances that will necessarily be there in our summaries.(BTW, did you mean to put ("heaven") instead of ("earth") in the second one?)
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