Once upon a time, I was like a shrub in the desert [Jeremiah 17:5-6]…
My sophomore year of high school I was at crossroads as I was trying to figure out what type of people I wanted to spend my time with. There was the crowd that was considered the “in crowd” and a crowd that lived their lives in a way that was different and not of this world. I saw some people in my life who were very close to me choose the in crowd; they went to all-night parties, experimented with drugs and alcohol, and eventually became addicted. As I saw the consequences of their choices, the path that included befriending those who were not of this world and were following Christ was a lot more appealing to me. I started going to the on-campus Christian Club and was invited to youth group. This was a turning point in which I began learning about God. I would go to church whenever I felt like it, for the purpose of being encouraged, and occasionally I would read and study my Bible. I got baptized before my Junior year of high school, because I had a fear that if I didn’t get baptized, I would go to hell. It wasn’t until I graduated high school that I committed to a church. I started to learn that some of my thinking about God was not correct. Getting baptized doesn’t save people, it is a proclamation in front of other believers that a person believes the Gospel and is a follower of Christ. During the time that I became committed and plugged into a church a new friend asked me to share my testimony with her and I didn’t know what to tell her. I had never been asked that question before. My pride heavily influenced me to make something up on the spot. I didn’t want anyone to question my so called salvation. As far as I could remember I thought I had always believed what I knew of Jesus; that He came to earth and was the Son of God, but deep inside I didn’t understand why God had to send Jesus to earth to die for my sins. I couldn’t see His glory yet. The reason I became friends with a group of Christians while in high school, was for the social network. Christians were people that lived the same way that I did, but the difference was that they lived their lives the way they did to glorify God. Their lives were fully surrendered to God. I lived morally because it was better for me, and there were areas of my life I still wanted to control and did not want to surrender to God. I found my identity in what I saw in the character of the Christians in my life, and not so much in Christ. My heart was hard on the inside. I read through the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John during the beginning of my Junior year of College, which the Lord used in my life to amplify how much I didn’t understand the gospel. During that time is when I truly learned what it meant to fall short of the Glory of God. I am imperfect and could not fulfill His law. Consequently, that is why God sent Christ to fulfill His law. Christ not only fulfilled the law, but He took the penalty of my sins. I deserved to be punished, but Christ took my punishment, so that I could spend eternity with God, instead of apart from Him. I learned that righteousness is not earned, but comes from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ. I had faith and was humbled to see that my life was not my own, but was given to me by God, so that He may be glorified. God must love me so much to sacrifice His Son so that I may have full fellowship with Him one day. That was the turning point when I stopped living for myself and started living for God. I made the decision to stop swimming in Luke-warm water, and start running on the path that leads to the prize. Philippians 3:14 says, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” I began to forget what had laid behind and started straining forward to the hope that was ahead. When I got out of the pool of Luke-warm water, I left every weight and sin that clinged so closely, and began running the race that was set before me. Had I not got out of that pool, I would have never been able to run, instead I would have drowned right where I was. I wasn’t living for God, I was living for myself. By God’s grace I started following Christ, but it wasn’t until then that I was able to count the false promises of my sin as loss. The surpassing worth of knowing Christ was so much more valuable than the sin that entangled me. Jesus was no longer just a part of my life, He was the point of my life. Now, when I stumble, I know that God is right there to offer me forgiveness for my sins and the grace to turn away from the false promises my sin would try to offer me. My satisfaction was found in Him, not my sin. In my life, I now see how God used those people who gave into the lie that what this world has to offer would find them happiness and satisfaction; He used it to show me how ugly sin is and how beautiful He is. He used my exposure to the morning after to protect me from ever desiring that and to instead desire Him and bring me to Himself. I was once dead in my trespasses and I am now alive in Christ, whi is the Son of my Creator. My motto for life can be found in Romans 11:36, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever, Amen.” May my worship of God in all things that I do point others to Him, and may I never take credit and give all credit to where it is due, which to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
…Only by His grace am I like a tree planted by water [Jeremiah 17:7-8]!
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