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You cannot have an encounter with the true and living God, the Creator of the universe, without being profoundly altered. 2 Cor. 5:17 says, “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” In my early church days, some well meaning people encouraged me to write out my testimony. The short version was in the summer of 1989, I prayed for and received Jesus as my savior. It didn’t take me long to realize how little that testimony meant to a non believer. There was this guy that was blind. After Jesus healed him, he got called into court. They asked him about theology. He told them he didn’t know anything about that, “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!” He had an encounter with Jesus and was changed. It did not require religious arguments, It was his simple testimony. Read the 9th chapter of John slowly, it’s an awesome story. Take the time to think about what God has changed in you. A woman named Hagar was thrust into an unbearable position. The angel of the Lord came and talked to her. After her encounter with God, she gave him a new name. Gen 16:17 says, “Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, ‘You are the God who sees me.’” (Another cool story to read.) How about you? If God asked you to give him a name, what would it be? I’ll gladly share my answer, but you’ll have to ask me in person. rick
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I’ve been a Christian my whole life, but until 7 or 8 months ago, I didn’t know God. I wanted to have a relationship with Him, but I never understood how to do that. Then I joined SSCC because I knew a lot of friends from school, and I finally realized that having a relationship with God wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. When I went to camp in July, for the first time I finally felt like I was coming in contact with God and having conversations with Him. I felt the spirit and peacefulness I had been waiting for. And I was sitting here trying to think of a way God has changed me, but I realized that God is still changing the things in me that He wants me to remember. I know that probably every teenager feels this way, but it brings so much comfort to me to call God the only One that truly understands me and won’t ever let me down. Because I’ve been let down by friends and family members so many times, I’ve just come to expect that I will be let down all the time. I have no idea if that’s a good or bad thing, but I’m not completely hopeless because I know God will never let me down. He’s always there for me whenever I’m depressed or upset about something. If I start talking to God about it or read my Bible, this peacefulness settles down on me and all my strength returns. I’ve felt these feelings of despair before when I get so caught up in thinking about all the bad stuff going on in my life and even in my best friend’s life and I’ve felt like nothing can save me anymore, but then God reminds me how lucky I am and how blessed I am to be exactly where He put me. I’m so thankful for that. Then that gives me the strength to tell my best friend, who is LDS, about that peacefulness so that she can feel it too. And I know she has. Even though our religions differ a lot, we always talk about the spirit in our lives and the happiness God brings us, which is really special to me because we both respect each other’s faith. So I just want to say a HUGE thank you to God for placing me where I am and for working on those changes in my life.
Comment by Live4God December 20, 2007 @ 12:31 pmLive4God,
You probably don’t know me, and i probably don’t know you, but i just wanted to say how proud of you I am. That is so amazing and makes me so happy to hear how God is working in your life and how much your relationship with Him is growing! That is so exciting! And i want you to know i kind of feel the same way, its like lately everything is starting to make so much sense and i am actually able to see what God is doing in my life! I might have a bad day, that makes me feel rotten, but i lay in bed just praying and i may not feel better right away, but i wake up feeling so different. I have such a different outlook on life, just the next day! God is so amazing and works in so many different ways!
So yay for you! and i will still pray for you to grow even more!
Comment by Dancing4theLord January 6, 2008 @ 6:41 pmOkay so this doesn’t really have to do with the topic but i needed to say it! I just want to thank the youth group at SSCC. I was involved in another church for a very long time and then we left cause of complicated things and have been searching for a long time to find a church. The hardest part has been finding a youth group for me, especially because in High School there are major cliques and everyone already knows everyone. So my family started going to SSCC and i would just go to the main service! I loved it so much, but i really needed to be a part of a youth group. So i brought my friend with me one sunday so i wasn’t alone, and even though we didn’t know anyone we loved it so much! It is such a welcoming and friendly enviornment. Now my friend and i come almost every week. We still don’t really know anyone but it is such a wonderful enviornment and Kerry teaches so many great lessons, we get excited to come to church every week.
So Thank You Burn Student Ministries! You have brought the love of going to Church back into my life! And i have been able to grow so much with God because of it!
Comment by Dancing4theLord January 6, 2008 @ 6:52 pmDancing4theLord,
Comment by Live4God January 7, 2008 @ 8:40 pmThank you so much for the encouragement! I was just starting to fall back into my old routine of sleeping in on Sundays…but your message just totally got me excited again for church and I can’t wait until next Sunday now. It feels amazing to have that reminder from you because that backs up everything we’ve been saying about how God is working in our lives. That guilt of not being at church for the past couple of weeks is catching up with me so THANK YOU I am SO grateful!
And I’ll be praying for you too in your relationship and journey with God =)
Thanks! It makes me feel good to know that i have helped you!
I appreciate the prayer! and I am glad you are going to start back into your regular church routine!
Comment by Dancing4theLord January 13, 2008 @ 1:55 pm