As part of my exam for Tuesday's class, I have to submit my personal testimony. While writing it out tonight, I was compelled to blog about it! This is the basic "how I came to know Jesus" story. But either way, it's my story!
As a young child, I attended church as part of family heritage and
tradition. I was involved in the Methodist church and participated in all
things church related. I was 11 years old when I went on my first missions trip
to Mexico.
At the age of 12, my mother was invited to attend “Heavens Gates and
Hell’s flames” at a local Assemblies of God church. It was during that dramatization
I learned there is a heaven and a hell. Up until then I had no knowledge of
hell. I gave my heart to Jesus that night in 1992, mostly in fear of going to
Hell. The church where we visited had a substantial youth group, so my mother decided
to leave the Methodist church and we started attending the Assemblies of God
church.
I spent the next few years trying to be “good” and do what would be
pleasing to my mother and the church. I attended youth group and Sunday school
faithfully, sang the songs, went on all the trips, (including three AIM trips)
and played the part. Somehow after sitting through hundreds of sermons over the
course of five years, I missed that there was a relationship to be had. I had
religion, and fear of hell.
I was hoping to attend an Assemblies of God college, when my plans
were re-directed. Birmingham Metro Masters Commission of Alabaster, AL
presented the Gospel during youth convention my senior year. I had never seen
young people on fire for God, full of the Holy Spirit until then. It was exciting to me. I filled out an
application and several months later I was on my way to live in Alabama. Upon
entering this ministry program, I had to work through several layers of
personal pain and heartache. I had to discover Jesus Christ as my personal Savior.
It was a long journey, but over the course of the next two years I fell passionately
in love with Jesus. I was truly his child and he was my King! I begin to love
prayer, and worship and reading his Word. Up until then, I only read my bible
during church, now I was reading it daily and could not get enough! I was
baptized during our graduation service of my first year. I begin to pray that God
would help me live a life that would please Him.
Fast forward 16 years, and here we are today. I am still following
Jesus with my heart, soul, mind and strength. I have never looked back or regretted
the moment when I decided that I would follow Jesus. I am thankful for my Christian
heritage within my family, but more so, I’m thankful for strangers who passionately
followed Jesus and were not ashamed of him! Being from the South, it is common
to be a church-goer, it was an easy role to follow. I wanted more than that. I
wanted to be sold out and radical for Jesus Christ. And I still do today!
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