I was born into a Christian household, and have heard of Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross from an early age. Althouh I was in contact with God’s Word by attending a Christian school, I took God for granted and did not trust Him with importance, and lacked true understanding of what my life is within God’s will, and moreover did not desire to have a personal relationship with God.
I first attended church at the age of 10, and like before, I did not treat God’s Word with any seriousness; I was more concerned to be and to appear to be a “good” and “obedient” child, rather than a child of God. This persisted until my sophomore year in high school. I have never read the Bible by myself and outside of a church context until, one day, when I was 16, I sat down and began to read the book of Matthew, quite honestly out of boredom, and perhaps a hint of curiosity to see what the Bible is all about and why I was always told to read it. But God is good, and by guiding me through Matthew 7, where Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven,” God lovingly rebuked me that day by striking a godly fear and an overwhelming sense of discomfort within my heart, which pointed to how my heart then is not, and never was, right with God. I also recognized that nothing in my power can reconcile myself to God, that my sin of replacing God with other useless and self-centered things desperately needed the love and grace of a Savior. That day was the first time I prayed to God with my mind, heart, and soul—a prayer that recognized my sins, a prayer that sought for forgiveness, and one asking for Jesus to come into my life.
Since then, I struggled with making God a priority, and Lord knows how many times I failed Him. But God I so patient and steadfast in His love for me, and in my first year in UCLA He brought me to a college Christian fellowship, where He revealed Himself to me through His Word, and fanned into flame the desire to know more about God and to live a life for Him. God has been making my soul hunger and thirst for Him, and through challenging and joyful opportunities to serve Him and His people, that hunger and thirst are constantly being fed and enlarged. Now I desire to do what pleases God, and not what pleases myself. Through obeying His commandment to be baptized, I desire to live my life as “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,” and a life that glorifies and proclaims the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I first attended church at the age of 10, and like before, I did not treat God’s Word with any seriousness; I was more concerned to be and to appear to be a “good” and “obedient” child, rather than a child of God. This persisted until my sophomore year in high school. I have never read the Bible by myself and outside of a church context until, one day, when I was 16, I sat down and began to read the book of Matthew, quite honestly out of boredom, and perhaps a hint of curiosity to see what the Bible is all about and why I was always told to read it. But God is good, and by guiding me through Matthew 7, where Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven,” God lovingly rebuked me that day by striking a godly fear and an overwhelming sense of discomfort within my heart, which pointed to how my heart then is not, and never was, right with God. I also recognized that nothing in my power can reconcile myself to God, that my sin of replacing God with other useless and self-centered things desperately needed the love and grace of a Savior. That day was the first time I prayed to God with my mind, heart, and soul—a prayer that recognized my sins, a prayer that sought for forgiveness, and one asking for Jesus to come into my life.
Since then, I struggled with making God a priority, and Lord knows how many times I failed Him. But God I so patient and steadfast in His love for me, and in my first year in UCLA He brought me to a college Christian fellowship, where He revealed Himself to me through His Word, and fanned into flame the desire to know more about God and to live a life for Him. God has been making my soul hunger and thirst for Him, and through challenging and joyful opportunities to serve Him and His people, that hunger and thirst are constantly being fed and enlarged. Now I desire to do what pleases God, and not what pleases myself. Through obeying His commandment to be baptized, I desire to live my life as “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,” and a life that glorifies and proclaims the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.