Jenny
During my sophomore year of high school, in 2002, I met a girl from Grace Valley Christian Center whose consistent, uncompromised faith in God permeated her actions. I did not grow up with any religious background, but I thought to myself, "This girl really lives as if there was a true God in heaven or something..." Her actions spoke so loudly to me that I wondered if Christianity could be real. My friend invited me to attend high school group events at Grace Valley that year and I was continually received with warm and loving attitudes by her church friends and leaders.
In December 2003, at another high school group social, I opened myself up to having a conversation about Christianity with one of the high school group leaders. Little did I know, God was working in my heart, and I told the leader that I was "looking for something in life." I didn't know if that something was God, a better goal in life, or just working harder in school, but I was definitely not satisfied with my material happiness. The high school group leader began to share with me that Jesus Christ was a real man who existed. Who taught and preached the gospel and ultimately died on the cross for the sins of mankind. Sin is breaking God's moral commands and it appeared in the world when the first man and woman disobeyed God. She pointed out that we can hardly live up to our own expectations of ourselves let alone live up to the righteous standards of a holy God. However Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was able to live a sinless life and by dying on the cross for our sins he reconciled us to God. This was the very first time I ever heard the gospel, and I began to tremble as our conversation progressed because God was causing me to logically trace the evidence of sin in my own life. I struggled to grasp how this could all be real, yet I was really trembling.
Following this conversation I was invited to the GVCC Christmas Eve service, and the message I heard in the sermon about Jesus resonated what had been shared with me at the social. I decided to start attending Sunday school and church with my friend from that point on to learn more about this Jesus Christ. I discovered at Grace Valley a consistent preaching of the truth from the Holy Bible and a genuine attitude of love from all the members. In the following weeks at Sunday school, we learned about worldliness and how it is a great danger to the soul because we easily get caught up in temporal things and disregard eternally important things such as our soul. I began to see the prominence of worldliness in my own life. Growing up, I was generally an obedient daughter and a good older sister to my siblings. Being the daughter of immigrant Chinese parents, I was taught at an early age to work hard in school in order to secure for myself a good future. I took a lot of pride in following the rules, getting good grades and being praised by my teacher and parents. I viewed the next 10-15 years of my life on a timeline marked with getting a good education, having a good career, and one day having a family. I never really considered what I would be purposing for after I attained all those things. I was very bothered by how much I sought happiness through material and temporal things despite the fact that none of it would matter to me after I died.
Finally I reached a point where God was telling me through the preaching that there cannot be any "in between Christians." I could not have one foot with the world and one foot with God. I realized that even if I did go to church every Sunday but did not confess my sins and make Christ ruler of my life, then I would be no better than before I ever heard the gospel or went to Church. God is a real God who exists and has called all people to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever. When God finally opened my eyes to this truth I turned to Jesus Christ and received him as Lord and Savior over my life.
Thanks be to God! I no longer need to depend on myself or my good grades for a secure future on earth or in heaven.