Joe's Journey
If I could list one important moment in my life, I wouldn't have any struggle defining that point (other than the fact that my wife, Tina might object that it's not our wedding day).
It's the time I gave my life to Christ.
| If you knew my background, you would know it wasn't an easy decision for
me. I was a born skeptic. If you don't believe me, take a look at one of my
journal entries I made when I was about 16 years old ----> My upbringing and background was quite non-Christian. In fact, I remember making fun of Christians in school... saying how religion was just a bunch of crock for the weak minded. Well then, call me weak minded, because a funny thing happened after my first year at college:
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I had just finished my freshman year in college (RPI) and headed back to Rochester to spend summer break. Shu-Huan, an old high school friend lived right down the block from me, and we met one day. "Joe, you've got to check out this bible study on Friday nights!", Shu said to me. Strange, I thought, we used to make fun of Christianity in high school. What's the deal? He told me this and that, and I was quite amazed that something could change his mind so quickly, so I went to the bible study out of curiousity. |
Bible study was interesting... nothing too impactful. But what I noticed was certain people had a lot of faith in something, and it brought them great joy. "Nice", I said to myself, "but not for me".
As the summer went by, I got the chance to read through some of the New Testament (which is the parts about Jesus and His teachings) in the Bible. There was some good teachings in there, like "love your neighbors as you love yourself", and "you'll reap what you sow".
One thing that I remember most in affecting my decision was this prayer to God: "Lord, if you're really out there, please show yourself to me". I figured since God promised he would reveal himself to anyone who earnestly looked for him, I would ask. It came down to the point that I needed a personal experience from God to make my decision. And He gave it to me. I knew at that moment that God was sitting besides me saying "Here I am". And at that moment, I broke down and cried.
In retrosight, that's what God means when He says "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me" (Revelations 3:20). All I had to do was ask Him to show himself to me. But the difficult thing for me was to ask.
What I didn't realize was that Shu and a bunch of other friends had been praying for me through the entire summer, and when I told him I was a Christian, he had this look of elation.
So it was on that summer of 1988 I accepted Christ as my personal savior. God has taught me a lot since then. I've come to realize through a study on the book of Romans that because of things I've done against God (cheated, lied, stolen, etc), I am not in a position to face him and say I am "good" enough to live with Him eternally. God is Holy and demands us to be Holy. Because of my sins, God had to send his son Jesus Christ to live a perfect Holy life and die on that cross, so he can take the punishment of sin from me. And because I took Christ as my savior, I am Holy because Jesus is Holy.