From: Testimony for Tea with Young Professionals at Budonoki church
Konnichiwa! Watashi wa Deborah desu. I am from Los Angeles, California. I am Chinese. My dad is from Taiwan and my mom is from Singapore. I went to the United States before I was 1 year old.
I decided to become a Christian when I was a very young child. I asked my dad later if he thought that that was when I really became a Christian and he felt it was. I remember that I had a fear of hell as a child. I also struggled with letting Jesus be the master of my life because I wanted to be the master of my life. After becoming a Christian, I have seen that Christianity is so much more that simply a way to escape hell. Also, following Jesus is the only way to have true joy.
In college, I started trying to tell my friends about Jesus. I think when you share your faith, you take a risk for God. Taking risks for Him strengthens your relationship with God. For me, it made me feel like my life was purposeful and can be used by God. I made a lot of mistakes when trying to tell my friends about Jesus. But eventually God helped me improve. Another thing that helped my faith grow stronger in college was having fellowship with more mature Christians. Being part of a strong Christian church family helped my own faith be strong.
After college, I started working for an insurance company. I became an actuary, which is a person who prices risk for the insurance company. I had to take very difficult examinations. They even gave me headaches! I wondered whether the Bible was really true. I wondered if this faith was really worth the sacrifice of my time and money and energy. Perhaps some of you have family members who do not like that you are a Christian. You may wonder if you are causing disruptions in your family life for nothing. God helped me see that the Bible is a supernatural book. There are many prophecies that the Bible predicted that have come true, for example, in Isaiah 53 -- which talks about Jesus. So many prophecies have come true that it seems obvious that the Bible is God’s Word.
Another thing I realized was that, without Christ, who/what would I live for? I remember getting into a religious discussion about the afterlife with my coworkers over dinner. I asked a question to one of them. He was a handsome guy who has a great family, a good job, a beautiful girlfriend, and lots of friends. When I asked him what he lives for, he paused and thought about it. He said, “I don’t know. I really don’t know.” It’s actually really sad! I realized that in Christianity, the benefits far outweigh the costs. The Bible says: “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matt 16:26)
Through the Bible I learned that God made me. I learned that I have done wrong things in my life and really offended God. And God will judge everyone one day. I wanted to go to heaven and be with God rather than hell and be receiving the punishment for my sins.
Heaven is a perfect place and only perfect people go there! That makes sense! I am not perfect. I can’t be perfect no matter how hard I try. But God has a solution. He sent His only Son, Jesus. Jesus died to accept the punishment in our place. I learned that I needed to repent. Repenting means to turn away from my sins and start following God. I needed to believe this wonderful good news. I needed to reconcile my relationship with God. I hope you will reconcile your relationship with God if you have not done so. He is a wonderful Father and wants to forgive you. You can come to Him today. Please feel free to ask a Christian how you can join God’s family!
Further notes to blog-readers: You might be someone who has been considering Christianity - for a while or just recently. To be honest, there's no good reason to delay and there's plenty of bad reasons to procrastinate (as an example - waiting 'til you are 60... what if you die at 59.999999 years old)? I guess I'm just thinking of the scenario of someone reading my blog who is ready to become a Christian but feels like no one is exactly explaining HOW. We'll here's how:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1989/668_Joy_Recovered/
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